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L  LI   I— 


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X 

D.D. 


(LIFE  AND  TIMES 


OF 


H.  H.  KAVANAUGH,  D.  D., 

ONE  OF  THE  BISHOPS  OF  THE  METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  SOUTH. 


BY  A.  H.  REDFORD,  D.  13. 


NASHVIL^LE,   TENN, 
1884. 


Copyright 

By  A.  H.  REDFORD, 
1884. 


!fo  ^\rs.  |V\.  li, 

DEAR  MADAM, — Upon  me  has  devolved  the  task 
of  writing  the  life  of  your  sainted  husband.  No 
duty  has  been  assigned  me,  at  any  time,  to  the  per- 
formance of  which  I  have  addressed  myself  with 
greater  pleasure  than  to  portray  the  character,  and 
follow  the  varied  fortunes,  of  one  to  whom  I  am  so 
much  indebted,  through  the  vicissitudes  of  a  long 
and  eventful  life,  devoted,  as  it  was,  to  the  ameliora- 
tion of  mankind. 

"When  he  was  a  young  preacher,  and  I  only  a 
child,  I  heard  from  his  lips  the  message  of  life, — a 
message  I  had  never  heard  before,  under  which  I 
was  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  a  change  of 
heart  and  the  duty  of  a  Christian  life.  The  teach- 
ings of  that  occasion  were  never  effaced  from  my 
mind,  but  followed  me  continually  until  I  was  led  to 
the  Cross  and  gave  my  young  heart  to  God. 

Of  honorable  birth  and  parentage,  favored  with 
religious  instruction  in  his  early  childhood,  it  is  not 
surprising  that,  in  the  rosy  morn  of  life,  he  sought 
and  found  the  pearl  of  great  price,  nor  that  he  ever 
afterward  maintained  that  high  eminence  as  a  Chris- 


4  PREFACE. 

tian,  whose  godly  walk  and  conversation  commanded 
the  respect  of  all  who  knew  him. 

The  heroic  days  of  Methodism  were  still  fresh  in 
the  minds  of  the  itinerant  ministry  when  he  entered 
the  ranks  as  a  traveling  preacher.  Indeed,  the  fields 
of  labor  he  occupied  in  the  first  years  of  his  minis- 
terial toil  were  sufficient  to  remind  him  of  the  sacri- 
fices which  were  met  and  the  privations  which  were 
endured  by  those  who  had  preceded  him,  while  the 
vast  amount  of  labor  he  performed,  together  with  the 
success  with  which  his  ministry  was  crowned,  leaves 
to  the  Church  a  legacy  on  which  is  written — labor 
and  rest,  warfare  and  victory. 

For  more  than  sixty  years  he  bore  aloft  the  ban- 
ner of  the  Cross,  thirty-one  of  which  were  spent 
among  the  mountains  and  plains,  in  the  cities  and 
villages  of  his  own  loved  Kentucky,  and  thirty  in 
the  discharge  of  the  duties  incident  to  the  exalted 
office  of  a  bishop  in  the  Church  of  God.  In  the 
vast  extent  of  his  travels  he  was  not  surpassed  by 
any  of  his  self-sacrificing  colleagues  while  in  the 
pulpit;  for  the  constancy  of  his  labors  and  the  ear- 
nestness with  which  he  presented  the  grand  and  en- 
nobling truths  that  had  molded  his  own  life  and 
imparted  inspiration  to  his  hopes  he  had  scarcely 
a  rival. 

Although  he  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  it  is  grat- 
ifying that  his  mental  powers  had  shown  no  signs  of 


PREFACE.        .  5 

decay,  but  that  to  the  last  he  exhibited,  in  the  social 
circle  and  in  the  pulpit,  that  intellectual  vigor  that 
had  distinguished  him  in  the  morn  and  noon  of 
his  life. 

If  he  did  not  close  his  life  in  the  pulpit,  yet  in 
that  sacred  place  his  labors  as  a  herald  of  the  Cross 
terminated.  From  thence  he  was  permitted  to  look 
through  the  veil  upon  the  crown  he  was  so  soon 
to  wear,  and  upon  the  exceeding  great  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory  in  which  he  would  share. 

The  probabilities  were  that  he  would  die  away 
from  home.  Always  at  work,  responding  to  the 
calls  of  his  brethren,  it  could  scarcely  have  been 
expected  that  death  would  overtake  him  beneath  his 
own  roof;  but  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  friendly 
hands  ministered  to  his  comfort  in  his  last  moments, 
and  that  you,  who,  for  nearly  twenty  years,  had  stood 
by  his  side,  accompanying  him  in  his  extensive  jour- 
neys, and  whispering  words  of  cheer,  were  with  him 
when  the  final  summons  came  calling  him  from  labor 
to  reward. 

With  my  best  wishes  and  sincere  prayers  for  your 
happiness  in  this  life  and  in  the  life  to  come,  I  beg 
permission  to  dedicate  this  volume  to  you. 

Your  brother  and  friend, 

A.  H.  REDFORD. 
BOWUNO  GREEN,  KY., 
June  21,  1884. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  II 
OF  ENGLAND  TO  THE  DEATH  OF 
THE  REV.  WILLIAMS  KAVAN- 
AUGH. 

MM, 

James  II 11 

William,  Prince  of  Orange 11 

Louis  Eugene  Cavaignac 13 

Philemon  and  Charles  Kava- 
naugh     17 

Their  emigration  to  America  .    17 

Origin  of  the  name 18 

Philemon  Kavanaugh 19 

Williams  Kavanaugh,  Sr 19 

Removal  to  Kentucky 19 

Birth  of  Williams  Kavanaugh, 

Jr 20 

Conversion    and    call    to  the 

ministry 20 

Becomes  a  traveling  preacher..    20 

Green  Circuit 20 

Brunswick  Circuit 22 

Cumberland  Circuit 22 

Franklin  and  Salt  River  Cir- 
cuits     22 

Dr.  Thomas  Hindo 22 

His  marriage  to  Mary  T.  Hub- 
bard 23 

The  blister-plaster 28 

Dr.  Hindc's  conversion 29 

His  fervent  piety 31 

His  death 35 

Mrs.  Mary  Todd  Hinde 36 

Her  conversion 37 

Letter    from    Bishop    Kavan- 
augh      37 

Hannah  Hubbard  Hinde 40 

Her  conversion 40 

Conference  of  1797 41 

John  Kobler's  letter  to  Will- 

iiiins  Kavanaugh 42 

William*    Kaviinaugh's    mar- 
riage and  location, 42 

Invited  to  join  the  Protestant 

Episcopal  Church 44 

Considers  the  proposition  fa- 
vorably     44 

Ordained  by  Bishop  Claggett...    45 
Rector   at    Lexington,    Louis- 
ville, and  Henderson,  Ky....    47 

His  death 47 

His  Christian  character 48 


PiOI. 

Letter  from  Bishop  Smith 48 

Death  of  Mrs.  Kavanaugh 51 

Thomas  W.  Kavanaugh 51 

Leroy  H.  Kavanaugh 52 

Mary  Jane  Kavanaugh. 54. 

Benjamin  T.  Kavanaugh 56 

Williams  B.  Kavanaugh 61 

CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  HUBBARD 
HINDE  KAVANAUGH  TO  HIS  AD- 
MISSION INTO  THE  KENTUCKY 
CONFERENCE. 

Hubbard  Hinde  Kavanaugh....  63 

Early  life 63 

Apprenticeship 63 

Conversion 64 

Joins  the  Methodist  Church.  ..  66 

Licensed  to  preach 67 

Editor   of  the    Western    Watch- 
man   67 

Trial  Sermon 67 

Benjamin  Lakiu 69 

Daniel  H.Tevis 73 

Win.  McCommas 74 

Nelson  Dills 74 

Daniel  Black 75 

Thompson  J.  Hollimaii 75 

David  Wright 75 

Clement  L.  Clifton 76 

Richard  I.  Duiigan, 76 

George  Richardson 77 

Abram  Long 79 

John  «.  Bargcr 80 

Newtoii  G.  Berryman 81 

CHAPTER  III. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1823  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1827. 

Little  Handy  Circuit 85 

Andrew  Monroe 85 

Conference  in  Shelbyville 92 

John  Tevis 94 

Miss  Julia  A.  Hierouymus 94 

Science  Hill 95 

Newport  Circuit 98 

Salt  River  Circuit !I7 

John  P.  Finley 100 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1827  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1831. 

PAGE. 

Lexington  Circuit 106 

Marriage 107 

Con  fi-rence  in  Shelby  ville 108 

First  sermon  we  ever  heard 109 

Stationed  in  Russellville Ill 

Visits  Howling  Green 112 

Littleton  Fowler 116 

Danville  and  Harrodsburg 123 

CHAPTER  V. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1831  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1835. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  as  a  preacher..  127 

Bardstown  and  Springfield 128 

Elected  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1832 129 

Revival  in  Bardstown 130 

Frankfort 130 

Barnabas  McHenry 131 

Marcus  Liiidsey 135 

Peter  Akers 148 

Wm.  C.  Stribling 152 

Lexington 160 

Revival  in  Lexington 161 

Amusing  incident 161 

CHAPTER  VI. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1835  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1839. 

Wm.  Adams 164 

General  Conference  of  1836 171 

The  slavery  question 171 

Louisville 173 

Discouragements 173 

Bardstown 175 

Meeting  in  Mt.  Washington 175 

Resolution  of  the  Kentucky 
Conference  requesting  Bish- 
op Roberts  not  to  transfer 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  to  Missouri.  176 

John  Newland  Alaffitt 177 

Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction   196 

Augusta  College 199 

John  P.  Finley  president 200 

Peter  Akers  appointed  agent..  200 
E.  W.  Sehon  and  H.  H.  Kava- 
naugh agents 201 

E.  W.  Sehon 201 

CHAFfER  VII. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1839  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1842. 

Re-appointed  agent  for  Au- 
gusta College 200 


J.  S.  Tomlinson 206 

H.  B.  Bascom 213 

Maysville 240 

Jonathan  Stamper 241 

Augusta  College 264 

Transylvania  University 265 

Returns  to  Maysville 270 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1842  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1848. 

Brook  Street  Church 271 

Richard  Corwine 271 

Revival  in  Louisville 274 

James  S.  Lithgow 274 

Re-appointed  to  Brook  Street...  278 

General  Conference  of  1844 285 

Kentucky  Conference  at  Bowl- 
ing Green 286 

Bishop  Janes 287 

Sermon  by  Mr.  Kavauaugh 288 

Shelbyville 291 

Mr.  Kavarmugh's  speech  before 

the  convention  of  1845 294 

B.  T.  Crouch 295 

Geo.  C.  Light 309 

Presiding  elder 315 

Lexington 317 

T.  N.  Ralston 318 

Wm.  H.  Anderson 326 

CHAPTER  IX. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1848  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1850. 

Border  war 331 

Expositor  and  T>~ue  Issue 331 

Corresponding  editor 332 

Soule  Chapel 332 

Delegate    to   General    Confer- 
ence   333 

Burr  H.  McCown 333 

John  H.  Linn 335 

G.  W.  Brush 347 

CHAPTER  X. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE  OF  1850  TO 
THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE  OF 
1854. 

Death  of  Bishop  Bascom 359 

Second  year  iiiCovington 360 

G.  W.  Merritt 360 

Edward  Stevenson 364 

Winchester  and  Ebenezer. 379 

Versailles 379 

Second  year  in  Versailles 381 

Delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1864 381 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

FROM  THE  GENKKAL  CONFERENCE 
OK  1854  TO  THE  GENERAL  CON 
FERENCE  OF  1858. 

General  Conference  of  1854 382 

Interchange  of  sentiments  be- 
tween delegates 38S 

Spoken  of  for  bishop 38S 

Failure  in  the  pulpit 384 

Elected  bishop 384 

Ilishop  Pierce 384 

Bishop  Early 391 

Bishop  Kavanaugh 39i 

First  conference 

Conference  in  Jefferson  City.  ..  39S 

At  Riley's  Chapel 398 

Wachita  Conference 398 

Mrs.  Kavanaugh 

Conferences  in  18.V) 399 

First  visit  to  California 400 

Arkansas  Conference 401 

East  Texas 404 


CHAPTER  XII. 

FROM  THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 
Of  1858  TO  THE  GENERAL,  CON- 
FKRENCE  OF  1870. 

General  Conferenceof  1858 407 

l!i-hop  Kavanaugh's  sermon  ..  407 
Kentucky,  West  Virginia,  and 

Virginia  Conferences 408 

Sick  in  1«» 409 

Missouri,  St.  Louis,  Kansas 
Mission,  Arkansas,  and  In- 
dian Mission  Conferences  in 

1800 409 

The  civil  war 409 

Fall  of  Fort  Sumter 410 

Kentucky  invaded 410 

Kentucky  Conference 410 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  South 411 

Louisville  Conference 411 

(•eneral  Conferenceof  IXtfJ 412 

Kentucky  Conference  in  180;;...   112 

Exciting  times 112 

l)e:i(li  of  Mrs.  Kavanaugh 413 

A.rrc  st  in  California 414 

Jlis  release 419 

Louisville  Conference 421 

•     S.-cond  marriage  421 

<  oiifciviices  forlSOT. 421 

<.c-n--r:il  (  i.nfi-n-nc-.-  of  18CO 422 

Bishops  i-l.-i-ti-d 423 

Appointed  to  California 423 

Iic-Mlfof  Bishop  Houlf 425 

Feeble  health 428 

Annual  meet  ing  of  the  bishops  428 

Episcopal  Held  for  1S<;* li's 

Conferences  for  1HO!) .):«) 

Gentle  reprimand 431 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FROM  THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 
OF  1870  TO  THE  ANNUAL  MEET- 
ING OF  THE  BISHOPS  IN  1875. 

PAGE. 

General  Conference  in   Mem- 
phis   432 

J.  C.  Keener  elected  bishop 432 

Bishop  Kavanaugh's  work 432 

Bishops  Doggett  and   Kavan- 
augh in  Nashville 434 

Confined  at  home. 437 

Death  of  Bishop  Andrew 438 

Bishops' meeting  in  1871 438 

His  episcopal  district 438 

At  the  conferences 439 

Death  of  David  Thornton 442 

Semi -centennial    sermon     at 

Lexington 444 

At  Russellville 446 

In  Texas 447 

General  Conference  in  Louis- 
ville, 1874. 449 

Arkansas,  White    River,  and 
Little  Rock  Conferences 449 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

FROM  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  BISH- 
OPS IN  MAY,  1875,  TO  THE  GEN- 
ERAL CONFERENCE  OF  1878. 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  in  Califor- 
nia   451 

Kavanaugh  C;. inn-ground 451 

Sketch  of  the  bisnop  by  Mrs. 

Emma  Hardacrc.: 454 

In  Oregon 461 

His  conferences 462 

St.  Joseph,  Mo 462 

Paroquette  Camp-meeting 403 

Falls  in  the  pulpit,  In  Nicho- 

lasville,  Ky 464 

At  the  conferences 464 

At  Lebanon,  Ky 465 

In  Nashville,  Tenn 465 

At  the  conferences. 465 

Death  of  Bishop  Marvin 466 

CHAPTER  XV. 

FROM  THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 
OK  1K7N  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  BISHOP 
KAVANAUGH. 

Jeneral  Conferenceof  1878....  4C7 

\t  Vanderbilt  University 467 

"istrict  conferences 467 

"amp-mei-ting  468 

lolston  Conference 468 

Mahama  Conference 469 

\i  home.  February,  1879 469 

listrict  Conferences 469 

Cavanaugh  Camp-meeting 469 

Kentucky  Conference 470 


10 


CONTENTS. 


PiGI. 

Caverna,  Ky 470 

Memphis  Conference 470 

Greenville,  Miss 470 

Mississippi  conference 470 

District  conferences 470 

Commencement    sermon   at 

Whitworth  Female  College.  471 
Illinois,  Indiana,   and   Louis- 
ville Conferences 471 

In  California 471 

Death  of  Bishop  Doggett 471 

At  home 474 

Death  of  Mrs.  Charlotte  Thorn- 
ton   474 

Death  of  Bishop  Wightman 476 

General  Conference  of  1882 477 

Bishop  Kavanaugh's  district...  477 

Battle  Monument 478 

Death  of  Bishop  Paine 479 

South    Georgia    and     Florida 

Conferences 479 

Annual  meeting  of  bishops 479 

Immense  labor 479 

Camp-meeting 480 

Last  visit  to  Versailles,  KY 480 

Visit  to  Bowling  Green,  Ky 480 

His  last  tour 481 

Conference  in  New  Orleans 483 

Pleasing  incidents 484 

His  last  sermon 485 

At  Ocean  Springs 488 

Last  attempt  to  preach 488 

His  death 489 

Letter  from  Rev.  J.  H.  Scruggs  489 
His  remains  en  route  for  Ken- 
tucky   495 

Funeral  services  in  Louisville.  495 


Funeral  sermon  by  Bishop  Mc- 

Tyeire 496 

His  burial 501 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

TRIBUTES     TO     THK       MEMOKY      OF 
BISHOP    KAVANAUGH. 

Memorial  service  in  Nashville, 

Tenn 503 

Address  by  Bishop  Pierce 503 

Preachers'  Meeting  in  Louis- 
ville   511 

Christian  Advocate 512 

New  Orleans  Advocate 514 

Raleigh  Advocate 515 

Central  Methodist 515 

Wilmington  Star 516 

Wesleyan  Christian  Advocate.  517 

Episcopal  Methodist 518 

Richmond  Advocate 518 

Southern  Christian  Advocate..  519 

Colorado  Methodist 519 

Pacific  Methodist 520 

Bishop  Keener 520 

C.  G.  Andrews,  D.  D 521 

T.  N.  Ralston,  D.  D 526 

Rev.  W.  M.  Grubbs 532 

W.  H.  Anderson,  D.  D 535 

Lines,  Josephus  Anderson,  D.D.  542 
Bishop  Kavanaugh's  tribute  to 

Methodism 544 

"  Our  Last  Trip,"  by  Mrs.  Kav- 

anaugh 5-15 

Centennial  Address,  Dr.  Mes- 
sick 552 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


OF 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH. 


FROM  THE  DEA  TH  OF  CHARLES  II  OF  ENGLAND  TO  THE 
DEA  TH  OF  REV.  WILLIAMS  KA  VAN  A  UGH. 

ON  the  death  of  Charles  II,  February  6,  1685, 
James  II  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  England. 
While  in  exile  he  became  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  did 
not  avow  his  faith  until  the  death  of  the  duchess  of 
York  in  1671. 

From  the  time  he  ascended  the  throne  his  oppo- 
sition to  Protestantism  was  marked,  not  only  in  the 
adoption  of  such  measures  as  were  calculated  to  pro- 
mote the  Catholic  faith,  but  likewise  to  suppress  every 
thing  that  might  advance  Protestant  Christianity. 
From  the  very  commencement  of  his  reign  he  arrayed 
against  his  administration  the  opposition  of  Parlia- 
ment, as  well  as  that  of  the  Puritans.  Such  was  his 
tyranny  that  before  two  years  had  elapsed  he  had 
estranged  from  him  every  class  of  his  Protestant 
subjects. 

As  a  leader  in  behalf  of  Protestantism,  William, 
prince  of  Orange,  who  had  married  the  daughter  of 


12  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

the  duke  of  York  (afterwards  James  II),  became  the 
head  of  a  league  formed  among  the  Protestant  princes 
of  Germany,  the  kings  of  Spain,  Sweden,  and  others, 
having  for  its  object  to  curb  the  power  of  Louis  XIV. 

The  treaty  by  which  the  alliance  was  constituted 
was  signed  at  Augsburg  in  July,  1686.  The  popu- 
larity of  William  turned  the  eyes  of  Protestant  Eng- 
land towards  him  as  their  only  hope. 

On  the  27th  of  April,  1688,  James  published  the 
famous  declaration  of  Indulgence,  which  he  ordered 
to  be' read  in  all  the  churches  in  the  kingdom.  The 
order,  however,  was  generally  disobeyed  by  the  clergy, 
while  seven  of  the  bishops  ventured  on  a  written  re- 
monstrance, for  which  they  were  committed  to  the 
Tower  on  a  charge  of  seditious  libel.  They  were, 
however,  acquitted  of  the  charge  on  the  29th  of  June, 
1688.  On  the  night  of  the  same  day  seven  of  the 
English  leading  politicians  dispatched  to  William, 
prince  of  Orange,  to  come  over  to  England  and  as- 
sume the  throne. 

On  the  5th  of  November  he  landed  at  Torbay 
with  fifteen  thousand  men.  Soon  the  whole  country 
was  at  his  side.  Seeing  no  safety  for  himself  in  Eng- 
land, James  fled  to  France,  where  he  was  received 
by  Louis  XIV,  who  assigned  him  a  large  pension, 
and  the  Palace  of  St.  Germain  as  a  residence.  In 
1689  he  went  to  Ireland,  where  he  was  received  with 
acclamation.  In  an  eifort  to  regain  his  throne,  the 
superior  genius  of  William  of  Orange,  displayed  at  the 
battle  of  Boyne,  July  1,  1690,  broke  the  current  of 
his  success,  while  the  battle  of  La  Houge,  fought  May 
10,  1692,  in  which  the  united  Dutch  and  English 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  13 

fleets,  under  Admiral   Russell,  defeated   the   French 
naval  force,  under  Tourville,  blighted  his  last  hope. 

Upon  his  return  to  France  quite  a  number  of  Irish 
families,  among  them  a  portion  of  the  Kavanaugh 
family,  who  were  adherents  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion,  accompanied  him.*  From  that  period  the 
name  of  Kavauaugh  in  France  has  not  been  an  ob- 
scure one.  The  reader  of  French  history  will  not 
fail  to  remember  Louis  EUGENE  CAVAIGNAC  (Kav- 
anaugh), who  was  so  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  state 
in  the  time  of  Louis  Philippe.  He  was  born  in  Paris, 
October  15,  1802.f  He  was  the  son  of  Jean  Baptiste 
Cavaignac,  who  was  one  of  the  deputies  of  the  conven- 
tion during  the  revolution  of  1793.  After  having 
taken  his  degree  at  the  College  of  Saint  Barba,  one 

*  In  a  family  Bible  now  in  possession  of  the  family  there  is 
the  following  record,  in  the  handwriting  of  Williams  Kavan- 
augh, the  father  of  the  bishop:  "  My  grandfather  in  the  pater- 
nal line  was  named  Philemon.  He  was  descended  from  an 
ancient  Irish  family  (I  have  understood)  much  devoted  to  the 
Stuart  interest.  About  A.  D.  1705  he  and  one  other  brother 
came  to  Virginia,  and  first  settled  in  Essex  County,  though  my 
grandfather's  final  settlement  was  in  Culpepper.  He  was  twice 
married.  His  last  wife's  maiden  name  was  Williams.  She  was 
from  Wales.  My  grandfather  had  several  children  by  each 
marriage.  My  father  was  (by  the  last  marriage)  a  posthumous 
child,  and  was  called  by  his  mother's  maiden  name.  My  grand- 
father in  the  maternal  line  (whose  name  was  Harrison)  was 
born,  I  believe,  in  England,  though  he  came  from  New  England 
to  Virginia.  He  and  two  brothers,  who  came  with  him,  all 
lived  to  very  great  ages.  His  wife's  maiden  name  was  John- 
son, or  Johnston, 'of  a  Scotch  family.  My  father  and  mother 
were  both  born  in  February,  1744,  Old  Style.  When  they  were 
married  I  do  not  know." 

t  General  Cavaignac  and  Bishop  Kavanaugh  were  born  the 
same  year. 


14  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

of  the  highest  schools  in  Paris,  he  was  received  at  the 
Polytechnic  School.  He  then  went  to  the  School  of 
Application  at  Metz,  with  the  title  of  sub-lieutenant 
of  Genae,  and  entered,  in  1824,  the  second  regiment 
of  that  title.  He  graduated  afterward  as  second  lieu- 
tenant on  the  1st  of  October,  1826,  as  first  lieutenant 
on  the  12th  of  January,  1827,  and  served  in  the  Morea 
(Grecia)  in  1828.  In  1829  he  was  made  captain  in 
the  same  regiment.  He  was  then  only  twenty-seven 
years  of  age. 

Returned  from  Grecia,  Captain  Cavaignac  was  in 
1831  in  garrison  at  Metz.  The  project  of  a  "National 
Association,"  which  he  signed,  and  which  was  consid- 
ered by  Louis  Philippe  as  an  act  of  opposition,  brought 
him  under  the  displeasure  of  that  monarch,  and  re- 
sulted in  his  withdrawal  from  active  service.  His 
genius,  however,  as  a  military  officer  was  too  impor- 
tant to  France  to  slumber.  In  1832  he  was  recalled 
to  the  service,  and  sent  to  Algeria.  There  he  exhib- 
ited a  rare  energy  and  a  great  intellect  in  regard  to 
that  country  and  war.  He  had  the  command  of  the 
weak  garrison  of  Tlemecen,  amid  the  most  hostile  and 
bravest  tribes  of  Kabyles.  In  such  a  difficult  and 
dangerous  position  he  displayed  the  greatest  talent 
of  strategy,  united  to  unequaled  intrepidity  and 
firmness. 

Notwithstanding  it  was  only  on  the  4th  of  April, 
1837,  that  he  obtained  the  rank  of  chief  of  battalion, 
yet  on  the  21st  of  June,  1840,  he  was  made  colonel  of 
the  Zouaves  Regiment,  and  on  the  19th  of  April,  1841, 
he  received  the  command  of  the  division  of  the  Tlem- 
ecen, with  the  rank  of  marshal  of  camp.  After  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  15 

revolution  of  February,  1848,  he  was  made  general  of 
division,  and  called  to  the  government  of  Algeria. 

Having  been  elected  representant  of  the  National 
Assembly,  he  accepted  the  ministry  of  war,  which  he 
had  previously  refused.  On  his  election  to  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  he  returned  to  Paris,  arriving  there 
on  the  17th  of  May,  and  finding  the  capital  in  an  ex- 
tremely critical  state.  The  events  of  June  elevated 
him  to  that  eminent  and  unequaled  position  in  which 
the  cause  of  order  became  his  debtor  for  so  many  em- 
inent services.  "A  formidable  insurrection  had  been 
organized,  and  it  remained  only  for  the  National  As- 
sembly to  assert  its  authority  by  force  of  arms.  Cav- 
aignac,  first  as  minister  of  war,  and  then  as  dictator, 
was  called  to  the  task  of  suppressing  the  revolt.  It 
was  no  light  work,  as  the  national  guard  was  doubt- 
ful, regular  troops  were  not  at  hand  in  sufficient  num- 
bers, and  the  insurgents  had  abundant  time  to  prepare 
themselves.  Variously  estimated  at  from  thirty  thou- 
sand to  sixty  thousand  men,  well  armed  and  well  or- 
ganized, they  occupied  the  north-eastern  portion  of 
the  city,  their  front  line  stretching  from  the  Pantheon 
on  the  south  of  the  Seine  by  the  Port  St.  Michel  to 
the  Portes  St.  Martin  and  St.  Denis.  Resting  on  the 
Faubourg  St.  Antoine  as  a  central  point,  and  threat- 
ening the  Hotel  de  Ville,  they  had  entrenched  them- 
selves at  every  step  behind  formidable  barricades,  and 
were  ready  to  avail  themselves  of  every  advantage 
that  ferocity  and  despair  could  suggest  to  them.  Cav- 
aignac,  knowing  the  work  he  had  before  him,  remained 
inactive,  notwithstanding  the  urgent  representations 
of  the  civil  members  of  government,  till  a  sufficient 


16  -    LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

regular  force  had  been  collected.  At  last,  by  a  strong 
combined  movement  on  the  two  flanks  and  against 
the  center  of  the  insurgent  forces,  he  attempted  to 
drive  them  from  their  barricades — with  doubtful  suc- 
cess for  some  time,  as  every  inch  of  ground  was  dis- 
puted, and  the  government  troops  were  frequently 
repulsed,  till,  fresh  regiments  arriving,  he  forced  his 
way  to  the  Place  de  la  Bastille,  and  crushed  the  in- 
surrection in  its  head-quarters." 

France  may  justly  boast  of  many  of  her  great  men, 
but  no  man  of  the  present  century  has  enjoyed  a 
prouder  distinction  than  General  Cavaignac.  He  re- 
ceived a  million  and  a  half  votes  for  the  presidency 
of  the  Republic.  He  died  in  1857.  That  General 
Cavaignac  descended  from  one  of  the  Kavanaugh 
families  that  went  to  France  with  James  the  Second 
there  can  be  no  doubt. 

At  the  time  when  a  portion  of  the  family  followed 
the  prostrate  fortunes  of  James  into  France,  one  of 
the  name  sought  refuge  in  Prussia.  In  the  history 
of  Napoleon  mention  is  made  of  a  very  obstinate  and 
troublesome  member  of  the  Prussian  court  by  the 
name  of  Kavanaugh,  who  probably  belonged  to  that 
branch  of  the  family  to  Avhom  reference  is  here  made 
as  having  sought  an  asylum  in  that  portion  of 
Germany. 

In  Ireland,  however,  the  name  first  appears,  and 
is  of  frequent  occurrence.  In  the  province  of  Ulster 
there  is  a  county  bearing  the  name  of  Cavan,  or  Ka- 
van,  and  .in  it  is  a  church  and  school  of  the  same 
name,  the  signification  of  which  is  charity  or  benev- 
olence. At  this  church,  Kilkavan,  Daniel  Kavanaugh 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  17 

was  educated,  and  was  the  first  to  bear  the  surname — 
the  suffix  "  augh  "  meaning  "  of."  The  name,  which 
so  often  occurs  in  Ireland,  sometimes  begins  with  the 
letter  C,  but  more  frequently  with  the  letter  K;  but 
wherever  found,  whether  in  France,  in  Prussia,  in 
Ireland,  or  in  America,  it  is  the  synonym  of  firmness 
of  purpose  and  integrity  of  character. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  his- 
tory records  but  little  in  reference  to  Ireland,  beyond 
the  turbulent  condition  of  the  country  and  the  con- 
flicts between  the  religious  sects.  To  escape  the  per- 
secutions incident  to  the  illiberal  spirit  of  the  times, 
in  1705  two  brothers,  Philemon  and  Charles  Kavan- 
augh  turned  away  from  their  native  land,  and  sailed 
for  America.  They  first  settled  in  Virginia,  in  Essex 
County.  Philemon  Kavanaugh,  however,  at  a  later 
period  removed  to  Culpepper  County,  where  he  made 
a  permanent  settlement.  Charles  Kavanaugh  left 
Virginia  for  New  England,  where  he  was  lost  sight 
of.*  There  is  no  task  more  difficult  to  the  historian 
of  the  present  time  than  to  trace  without  authentic 
records  the  genealogy  of  a  family  through  the  centu- 
ries that  have  passed. 

Although  surnames  were  introduced  previous  to 
the  Christian  era,  and  were  adopted  by  our  Lord  dur- 
ing his  public  ministry,  yet  they  were  not  in  common 

*  There  is  a  family  tradition  that  three,  brothers  left  Ireland 
together — that  one  of  them  stopped  in  England,  and  the  other 
two  came  to  America.  General  Kavanaugh,  in  command  of  Her 
Majesty  Queen  Victoria's  troops  in  India,  has  a  similar  family 
tradition,  his  paternal  ancestor  having  settled  in  England,  while 
two  other  brothers  went  to  America.  He  undoubtedly  belongs 
to  the  biime  original  stock. 

2 


18  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

use  until  the  latter  part  of  the  tenth  or  the  beginning 
of  the  eleventh  century.  Besides  the  contests  for 
power  and  the  numerous  conflicts  in  which  petty 
princes  were  prominent  actors,  drenching  the  land  in 
blood  and  blotting  out  entire  families,  together  with 
the  fact  that  the  art  of  printing  was  not  introduced 
until  about  the  year  1450,  rendered  it  difficult  to  pre- 
serve with  accuracy  the  family  lineage. 

The  Kavanaugh  family,  however,  dates  far  back 
of  the  period  to  which  we  may  trace  it  without  diffi- 
culty. "The  Irish  nation  [according  to  Connellan's 
'  Tribal  History  of  Ireland ']  was  originally  made  up 
of  four  distinct  tribes,  one  of  which  came  from  Greece 
in  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  era,  under  the 
leadership  of  a  line  of  petty  princes.  They  continued 
to  preserve  their  organization  as  a  tribe  until  about 
the  eleventh  century,  up  to  which  time  surnames  were 
not  used.  Very  early  in  the  eleventh  century  the 
ruling  prince,  whose  name  was  Dermot,  had  a  son 
whose  name  was  Daniel,  who  was  educated  at  Kilka- 
van,  and  hence  was  called  a  Kavan-augh,  when  sur- 
names were  first  introduced." 

At  the  time  when  Philemon  and  Charles  Kavan- 
augh left  Ireland  and  came  to  America,  it  required  no 
little  courage  to  turn  away  from  native  land  and  seek 
a  home  on  a  foreign  shore.  Some,  prompted  by  the 
desire  to  enjoy  freedom  of  thought,  others  by  the  hope 
of  gain,  resolved  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  the  New 
World.  Influenced  by  whatever  motive,  it  was  not 
the  unambitious  and  the  timid,  but  the  brave  and 
chivalrous,  who  were  willing  to  encounter  the  dangers 
of  the  ocean  and  the  privations  of  the  virgin  forest. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  19 

Virginia  was  settled  by  a  noble  people.  Whether 
from  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  or  from  France,  it 
was  not  from  the  lower  grades  of  society  that  the  col- 
ony of  Virginia  was  settled.  Many  families  of  fortune 
and  of  gentle  birth  were  among  the  early  settlers,  while 
others  with  brawny  arms  and  stout  hearts  made  it  their 
home,  and  the  home  of  their  children. 

We  have  already  seen  that  more  than  gentle  blood 
flowed  in  the  veins  of  the  Kavanaugh  family,  and  that 
they  were  the  patrons  of  learning.  Philemon  Kavan- 
augh was  twice  married,  but  whether  his  first  mar- 
riage occurred  before  he  left  the  Emerald  Isle  the 
record  does  not  show.  His  second  wife  was  Miss 
Williams,  a  lady  with  fine  intellectual  endowments. 
She  was  from  Wales.  By  each  marriage  there  were 
several  children. 

Among  the  children  by  the  second  marriage  were 
two  sons,  Charles  and  Williams.  Williams  was  the 
younger  son  and  the  youngest  child,  being  a  posthu- 
mous child.  He  was  born  in  February,  1Y44,  Old 
Style. 

Williams  Kavanaugh  was  born  in  Virginia,  and 
came  to  Kentucky  in  1775,  and  settled  in  Madison 
County,  on  the  waters  of  Muddy  Creek,  ten  miles 
north-east  of  Boonsboro.  The  body  of  emigrants  in 
whose  company  Williams  Kavanaugh  and  family  emi- 
grated to  Kentucky  was  among  the  first  who  came  to 
try  their  fortunes  in  the  Western  wilderness.  They 
were  guarded  by  an  armed  escort  of  the  able-bodied 
men  of  their  number.  On  their  way  the  family  of 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  detained  for  months  on  account 
of  the  illness  of  his  wife.  The  settlement  he  made 


20  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

was  under  the  immediate  protection  of  Col.  Estill,  who 
had  charge  of  Estill  Station. 

Williams  Kavanaugh,  son  of  Williams  Kavan- 
augh, was  born  near  the  dividing  line  between  Vir- 
ginia and  Tennessee,  August  3,  1775,  while  his  parents 
were  moving  to  the  District  of  Kentucky  from  Vir- 
ginia. Brought  up  by  parents  whose  lives  were  con- 
secrated to  Christ,  when  only  a  child  he  became  con- 
vinced of  the  necessity  of  religion,  and  sought  and 
found  the  pearl  of  great  price.  Impressed  with  the 
conviction  that  he  ought  to  preach  the  Gospel,  he 
"  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood,"  but  resolved  to 
enter  upon  the  work. 

In  1794  the  Conference  for  the  West  was  held  in 
Jessamine  County,  Kentucky.  At  that  session  his 
name  was  placed  upon  the  conference  roll.  Several 
names,  distinguished  in  the  history  of  Methodism  in 
America,  entered  the  itinerant  ranks  the  same  year  as 
Williams  Kavanaugh  ;  among  whom  were  Lewis  Gar- 
rett  and  Nicholas  Snethen.  In  Kentucky  there  were 
only  six  circuits,  ten  preachers,  with  a  white  member- 
ship of  two  thousand  and  eighty-two,  and  a  colored  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty-six. 

His  first  appointment  was  to  Green  Circuit  in  East 
Tennessee,  with  Lewis  Garrett  as  his  colleague,  and 
the  zealous  John  Kobler  as  his  presiding  elder.  Mr. 
Kavanaugh  was  only  nineteen  years  old  when  he  en- 
tered upon  the  labors  and  duties  of  a  traveling 
preacher.  Mr.  Garrett  writes :  "  Williams  Kavan- 
augh and  myself  proceeded  to  Green  Circuit.  This 
circuit  was  a  frontier  circuit.  It  lay  along  the  Hol- 
ston  and  French  Broad  Rivers.  There  were  few  set- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  21 

tiers  south  of  French  Broad,  and  what  there  were 
either  lived  in  forts,  cooped  up  in  dread,  or  lived  in 
strongly  built  houses,  with  puncheon  doors,  barred  up 
strongly  when  night  approached.  The  Cherokee  In- 
dians, who  were  their  near  neighbors,  were  in  a  state 
of  hostility.  We  visited  those  forts  and  scattered  set- 
tlers in  quest  of  perishing  souls."  To  reach  this  re- 
mote field  he  had  to  pass  "  through  the  wilderness, 
which  was  both  difficult  and  dangerous."  In  com- 
pany with  "  about  sixty  men,  six  of  whom  were  trav- 
eling preachers" — among  them  John  Ray  and  Lewis 
Garrett — he  left  the  Crab  Orchard,  the  place  where 
the  company  met,  and  set  out  upon  his  journey.  The 
first  night  he  encamped  in  the  vicinity  of  a  fort  in 
the  woods,  with  no  covering  but  the  clear  blue  sky. 
Around  their  camp-fires  they  worshiped  God,  "the 
intrepid,  fearless,  zealous  Ray"  leading  in  the  de- 
votions. 

The  next  day  the  company  "  passed  the  gloomy 
spot  where,  a  short  time  before,"  several  persons  "  had 
been  massacred  by  the  Indians,  two  of  whom  were 
Baptist  preachers,"  and  again  at  night  they  slept  in 
the  woods.  The  third  day  they  "  crossed  the  Cum- 
berland Mountains,  and  reached  the  settlement  on 
Clinch  River,  where "  they  "  rested  until  the  next 
day."  * 

That  such  a  field  of  labor  as  this  was  sufficient  to 
test  the  fidelity  and  courage  of  so  young  a  preacher 
will  not  be  questioned.  Although  only  a  youth,  he 
was  not  insensible  to  the  responsibilities  of  the  holy 
office  to  which  he  had  been  called.  With  a  common d- 

*  "  Recollections  of  the  West." 


22  .       LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

able  zeal  he  prosecuted  the  duties  assigned  him,  win- 
ning souls  to  Christ,  and  a  warm  place  in  the  confi- 
dence and  affections  not  only  of  the  people  he  served, 
but  of  his  colleague,  Mr.  Garrett,  by  whom  he  was 
always  kindly  remembered. 

In  1795  he  was  sent  to  the  Brunswick  Circuit, 
with  the  gifted  Ira  Ellis  as  his  presiding  elder,  and 
in  1796  to  the  Cumberland,  both  lying  in  the  State 
of  Virginia.  In  the  Minutes  of  1797  his  name  ap- 
pears in  connection  with  two  circuits — the  Franklin, 
in  Virginia,  and  the  Salt  River,  in  Kentucky.  It  is 
probable  that  he  spent  the  first  six  months  on  the 
Franklin  Circuit,  and  the  latter  on  Salt  River. 

Among  the  names  that  were  prominent  in  the  early 
history  of  Methodism  in  Kentucky  that  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Hinde  deserves  to  be  held  in  remembrance.  His  great 
opposition  to  the  religion  of  the  Nazarene ;  his  power- 
ful awakening ;  his  sound  conversion ;  his  Christian 
life,  shedding  a  luster  over  the  community  in  which 
he  lived ;  his  peaceful  death,  resembling  an  Autumn 
sunset,  all  beautiful  and  cloudless,  ought  not  to  be 
forgotten.  He  "  was  born  in  Oxfordshire,  England, 
in  July,  1734.  He  studied  regularly  both  branches 
of  his  profession — surgery  and  medicine — in  London, 
under  the  direction  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Thomas 
Brookes,  who  superintended  St.  Thomas's  Hospital. 
At  the  age  of  twenty,  Dr.  Brookes,  from  personal 
friendship  to  his  pupil,  and  from  an  assurance  that  his 
indefatigable  industry  had  qualified  him  for  the  ex- 
amination, presented  him  before  the  doctors'  commons 
(a  board  of  physicians  and  surgeons),  and  would  have 
him  to  pass  an  examination  at  an  earlier  period  of 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  23 

life  by  one  year  than  was  usual  on  such  occasions. 
He  soon  after  obtained  for  him  a  commission  as  sur- 
geon's mate  in  the  British  navy.  Dr.  Hinde  having 
entered  the  service  of  the  government  of  his  native 
country,  he  was  ordered  into  foreign  service,  and  the 
fleet  to  which  he  was  attached  arrived  at  New  York 
on  the  14th  of  June,  1757.  He  was  with  the  squadron 
at  Louisburg  the  same  year,  and  1757—58  wintered  at 
Halifax,  Nova  Scotia.  In  1758  he  was  at  the  reduc- 
tion of  Louisburg,  under  Amherst.  In  1759  he  was 
at  the  reduction  of  Quebec,  under  that  distinguished 
general,  Wolfe,  and  dressed  the  wounds  of  General 
AVolfe  when  he  fell  on  that  memorable  occasion.  He 
belonged  to  the  vessel  which  Wolfe  left  to  go  on  shore 
to  contend  with  Montcalm  for  the  palm  of  victory  on 
the  plains  of  Abraham.  Soon  after  the  fall  of  Que- 
bec he  returned  to  England.  He  was  at  the  reduction 
of  Bellislc,  and  afterward  was  promoted  to  surgeon. 
After  peace  was  concluded  with  France  in  1763,  hav- 
ing formed  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  a  young 
Virginian  who  was  his  fellow-student  under  Dr. 
Brookes,  he  was  induced  through  his  young  friend, 
who  had  returned  home,  and  Dr.  Brookes,  to  accept 
the  invitation  of  an  aged  practicing  physician  in  Es- 
sex County,  Virginia,  to  assist  him  in  practice,  and 
about  1765  settled  himself  near  a  place  called  Hobb's 
Hole,  in  Essex  County,  Virginia.  He  afterward  re- 
moved to  King  and  Queen  County,  and  settled  at  a 
place  called  Newtown,  where  he  purchased,  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  surgery  and  medicine  with 
success. 
In  1767,  September  24th,  Dr.  Hiude  married 


24  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Mary  T.  Hubbard,  daughter  of  his  countryman,  Mr. 
Benjamin  Hubbard,  an  English  merchant;  and  some 
time  after,  disposing  of  his  possessions  at  Newtown, 
removed  to  Hanover  County,  and  settled  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  that  distinguished  orator,  statesman,  and 
patriot,  Patrick  Henry,  and  became  his  family  phy- 
sician." 

Dr.  Hiude  was  the  friend  of  Lord  Dunmore,  as 
well  as  of  Patrick  Henry.  Warmly  espousing  the 
American  cause,  he  was  appointed  by  the  governor 
of  Virginia  a  surgeon  in  the  army,  in  which  position 
he  served  throughout  the  Revolutionary  War. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  having  drawn  no  part  of 
his  salary,  and  from  his  great  skill  as  a  surgeon  hav- 
ing endeared  himself  to  the  Virginians,  in  settling  up 
his  accounts  he  was  presented  with  a  land- warrant,  to 
be  located  in  lands  to  be  selected  in  Kentucky,  leav- 
ing a  blank  within  the  warrant  for  the  number  of 
acres  granted  to  be  filled  by  Dr.  Hinde  himself.  The 
blank  was  filled  with  twenty  thousand,  and  placed  in 
the  hands  of  Patrick  Henry  to  select  and  locate  the 
lands. 

Mr.  Henry  failed  to  accomplish  it  as  anticipated, 
securing  but  one-half  the  number  of  acres.  Dr.  Hinde 
then  employed  his  nephew,  Hubbard  Taylor,  to  pro- 
ceed to  Kentucky  and  complete  the  location,  offering 
him  one-half  for  his  services. 

These  lands  were  located  between  Winchester  and 
Lexington,  chiefly  in  Clarke  County. 

"In  1788  or  1789  the  Methodists  began  to  preach 
in  the  neighborhood.  An  elderly  gentleman,  a  High- 
churchman,  who  resided  four  or  five  miles  from  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  25 

doctor's,  possessed  a  very  fine  cherry-orchard.  It  was 
usual  with  the  old  gentleman  to  give  annually  to  the 
youth  of  both  sexes  a  cherry-feast.  Indeed,  feasting 
and  amusements  constituted  the  grand  round  of  em- 
ployment with  the  youth  of  that  day.  He  never 
failed,  on  such  occasions,  to  have  some  of  the  doc- 
tor's family  to  attend.  His  eldest  daughter  had  mar- 
ried and  moved  away;  his  second  was  then  just  grown 
up,  and  about  this  time  she  attended.  Old  Mr.  Da- 
vid Richardson  (the  High-churchman)  was  a  great 
opposer  of  the  Methodists :  two  of  his  sons  had  at- 
tended their  meeting,  contrary  to  his  express  orders, 
and  both  of  them  had  returned  under  serious  awak- 
enings. They  were  young  and  inexperienced,  and 
did  not  know  what  to  do  or  where  to  go,  but  they 
dreaded  their  father's  wrath  ;  however,  they  returned 
home,  and  the  old  man,  having  learned  that  they  had 
attended  one  of  those  meetings,  seized  the  oldest  by 
the  collar,  and  while  he  was  dealing  out  his  blows 
with  his  stuff  in  a  most  unmerciful  manner,  his  son 
professed  to  got  converted,  and  praised  the  Lord. 
The  father  soon  after  was  seized  with  remorse  of  con- 
science, and  in  order  to  make  some  atonement  for 
what  he  had  done,  caused  his  large  barn  to  be  re- 
moved to  a  beautiful  grove,  near  an  excellent  spring 
of  water,  and  fitted  it  up  for  a  Methodist  chapel.  And 
although  this  old  gentleman  for  a  long  time  contin- 
ued to  be  an  opposer  to  vital  piety,  yet  at  his  death,  I 
am  informed,  he  sought  the  Lord  and  found  mercy. 
His  eldest  son  at  that  early  day  was  so  filled  with  love 
and  zeal  in  the  good  cause  of  the  blessed  Redeemer 
that  he  turned  upon  the  doctor's  daughter.  He  ad- 


26  LIFE  AND   TIMES  t)F 

monished  her  of  the  error  of  her  ways,  her  sinful  state 
by  nature,  of  the  necessity  of  a  change  of  heart,  and 
of  the  awful  consequences  of  dying  unprepared  to  meet 
God.  It  made  a  deep,  and  ultimately  a  lasting,  im- 
pression upon  her  mind ;  and  through  the  day,  while 
she  was  reflecting  on  the  subject,  very  serious  convic- 
tions reached  her  heart.  In  the  evening  she  threw 
herself  upon  the  bed,  and  in  great  agony  began  to 
pray  to  the  Lord  to  have  mercy  upon  her  soul.  But 
O,  how  gloomy  was  her  situation !  She  began  not 
only  to  reflect  upon  her  own  case,  but  saw  the  situa- 
tion in  which  her  parents  were  also.  She  was  induced 
afterward  to  attend  a  meeting,  but  it  was  a  Methodist 
meeting!  and  now,  how  could  she  meet  her  parents? 
Her  father  a  confirmed  deist,  her  mother  cheerful  and 
lively,  she  herself  brought  up  in  the  gayest  circle  of 
society — she  could  find  no  person  with  whom  she 
could  take  counsel,  the  whole  settlement  being  com- 
posed of  a  gay  and  fashionable  people.  The  tempter 
pleaded  hard  with  her,  and  argued  that  if  she  did  now 
seek  the  Lord,  and  would  go  to  hear  these  people, 
that  although  she  had  the  most  tender  and  affection- 
ate parents,  they  would  disown  her,  and  turn  her  out- 
of-doors  ;  that  she  would  bring  a  reproach  upon  them, 
and  be  forsaken  by  her  companions.  But  however 
desperate  her  case  might  be  made  to  appear  her  reso- 
lution was  fixed,  and  she  was  determined  to  abide  the 
consequences. 

"  The  awakening  of  the  daughter  made  a  deep  im- 
pression upon  her  mother's  mind.  The  doctor  at 
length,  through  some  channel,  learning  the  result  of 
the  visit,  and  seeing  the  visible  change  in  his  daugh- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  27 

ter's  appearance,  all  of  a  sudden  on  this  occasion  was 
at  once  roused  to  the  highest  pitch  of  desperation. 
The  threatened  storm  began  now  to  gather  round  this 
new  subject  of  awakening  grace.  He  called  for  a  ser- 
vant, directed  him  to  prepare  a  horse  and  chaise  to 
take  his  daughter  to  her  aunt's  (Mrs.  Harrison),  a 
widow  then  living  in  Caroline  County,  forty  miles 
distant;  and  with  the  most  vehement  protestations, 
that  unless  his  daughter  relinquished  her  purpose, 
never  to  see  his  face  again.  How  feeble  are  the  ef- 
forts of  man  without  grace !  When  Heaven  designs 
to  do  the  work,  what  is  a  human  being's  puny  arm  to 
resist,  or  to  be  raised  to  oppose  it?  How  providential 
was  this  singular  event :  her  aunt,  unknown  to  the 
doctor,  had  gone  to  hear  these  strange  people,  had 
embraced  religion  and  joined  society,  and  opened  her 
house  for  preaching.  He  could  not  have  sent  her  to 
a  more  convenient  and  suitable  place.  But  to  the 
doctor's  great  annoyance,  his  wife  became  more  and 
more  sensibly  affected ;  her  awakenings  were  deep, 
and  she  desired  to  go  and  hear  the  Methodists  for  her- 
self. In  this  the  old  doctor  opposed  her.  A  quar- 
terly-meeting was  to  be  held  at  Richardson's  Chapel 
(called  the  Barn),  to  which  she  desired  to  go.  Al- 
though on  all  occasions  the  doctor  perhaps  was  not 
excelled  as  a  husband  or  parent  for  tenderness  and 
affection  for  his  family — indeed,  he  carried  his  indul- 
gence to  an  extreme — on  this  occasion  it  was  strange, 
it  was  really  astonishing,  to  see  how  his  feelings  were 
wrought  upon ;  they  were  aroused  beyond  control. 
He  most  positively  denied  his  wife  the  privilege  of 
going  to  this  meeting :  he  became  persuaded  in  his 


28  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

own  mind  that  these  people  had  set  those  persons  thus 
affected  crazy,  and  thus  concluded  that  his  wife  and 
daughter  were  really  deranged,  and  that,  without  a 
proper  remedy  being  immediately  applied,  the  conse- 
quences would  become  very  serious."  * 

Opposed  to  Christianity,  he  availed  himself  of  ev- 
ery opportunity  to  arrest  the  tide  of  religious  emotion, 
that  had  swelled  the  hearts  of  his  wife  and  daughter, 
until  at  length  his  madness  culminated  in  the  applica- 
tion of  a  blister  to  the  neck  of  his  wife  to  bring  her  to 
her  senses.  We  are  indebted  for  the  following  sketch 
to  Bishop  Kavanaugh : 

"After  the  blister-plaster  was  put  on,  she  and  her 
daughter  went  on  to  the  meeting  again.  The  next 
day,  the  doctor  asked  how  her  blister  was  coming  on. 
'  Did  the  plaster  draw  well?'  She  said,  'I  know 
nothing  about  the  plaster.'  He  exclaimed,  'What! 
did  you  not  take  it  off?'  She  answered,  '  No.'  Of 
course  he  knew  that  it  was  in  a  bad  condition.  He 
stood  astounded,  until,  she  told  me,  he  looked  as  if 
he  were  petrified,  and  doubted  if  he  had  the  use  of 
himself.  She  said  she  arose  from  her  seat  and  pur- 
posely brushed  by  him,  when  he  staggered  and  caught, 
showing  the  want  of  self-control,  from  the  intensity 
of  his  feelings;  for  though  he  had  thus  treated  his 
wife,  he  loved  her  with  a  warm  devotion.  Reflecting 
on  this  transaction,  conviction  seized  on  his  mind, 
and  troubled  him  for  his  sins.  He  dressed  the  blis- 
ter as  best  he  could,  and  taking  a  seat  by  his  wife,  he 
said,  ( I  expect  if  you  were  to  join  these  people  you 

*  Thomas  S.  Hinde  in  Methodist  Magazine,  vol.  x,  pp.  200, 
261,  263,  309,  310. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  29 

would  feel  better/  With  animation  she  exclaimed, 
'Thank  you,  blister-plaster!  thank  you,  blister-plas- 
ter!' believing  that  her  blister  had  accomplished  that 
much  for  her. 

"  She  and  her  daughter  now  went  to  Church  much 
elated.  They  thought  their  victory  so  grand  they  in- 
vited the  preacher  home  with  them.  This  was  rather 
too  fast  for  the  doctor;  but,  as  a  matter  of  civility, 
he  politely  entertained  the  preacher,  and  asked  him  to 
have  prayers  at  night.  The  preacher  prayed  with  such 
mighty  power  that  one  or  two  of  the  girls  fell  pros- 
trate on  the  floor,  and  looked  as  though  they  were 
dead.  The  doctor  quietly  crawled  on  his  hands  and 
knees  to  them,  and  felt  their  pulse,  said  he  was  satis- 
fied that  they  could  not  die  with  that  pulse,  and  so 
crawled  back  to  his  chair  again. 

"  The  meeting  went  on,  and  the  doctor  would  make 
it  convenient,  in  visiting  his  patients,  to  go  by  the 
meeting  and  hear  the  sermon — would  sit  at  the  door 
and  hear  as  much  of  the  class-meeting  as  he  could. 
He  was  very  serious,  and  soon  gave  him  self  to  prayer, 
and  was  converted  to  God.  His  particular  exercises 
of  rnind  at  the  time  of  his  conversion  I  do  not  re- 
member to  have  heard  detailed.  This  I  regret.  In 
detailing  the  circumstances  that  brought  him  to  God, 
and  the  knowledge  of  his  salvation,  he  often  adverted 
to  the  blister-plaster.  I  once  heard  him  say  (I  think 
it  was  in  a  love-feast),  '  I  put  a  blister-plaster  on  my 
wife  to  bring  her  to  her  senses,  and  lo  and  behold,  it 
brought  me  to  my  senses ! '  On  one  occasion,  going 
to  love-feast,  his  wife  remarked  to  him,  '  Doctor,  if 
you  should  have  occasion  to  speak  this  morning,  you 


30  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

need  not  say  any  thing  about  the  blister-plaster,  for 
every  body  knows  that.'  I  suppose  he  thought  he 
would  not,  until  he  began  to  speak,  and  when  he  came 
to  the  part  that  brought  in  the  plaster  he  paused  a 
moment,  and  looking  over  to  his  wife,  said,  '  Honey, 
I  can  't  get  along  without  that  blister-plaster/  He 
then  gave  an  account  of  it,  and  passed  on. 

"  Few,  I  suppose,  ever  took  more  pleasure  in  the 
habit  of  prayer  than  did  Dr.  Hinde,  or  practiced  de- 
votions more  frequently.  On  the  place  which  he  cul- 
tivated in  Kentucky  you  might  often  see  little  houses 
built  of  sticks  of  wood,  and  covered,  most  usually,  with 
bark,  with  a  door  for  entrance.  His  grandchildren 
(myself  among  the  number),  who  were  accustomed  to 
joyous  gambols  over  his  grounds,  were  rather  per- 
plexed as  to  the  use  of  these  singular  structures.  At 
length  the  old  doctor  was  overheard  at  his  private 
prayers  in  one  of  these  houses.  After  that  we  all  called 
them  '  grandpa's  prayer-houses.'  He  aimed  to  conceal 
his  person,  but  did  not  pray  very  silently — he  could 
often  be  heard  a  considerable  distance.  On  one  occa- 
sion, he  went  into  what  we  termed  there  a  'sink-hole' 
to  pray.  This  was  near  the  road.  He  became  very 
much  engaged,  struggling  for  the  blessing  of  God  upon 
him.  One  of  his  neighbors,  by  the  name  of  Lion,  was 
passing  by,  and  hearing  the  voice  of  prayer,  but  not 
seeing  from  whence  it  came,  looked  about  to  see  if  he 
could  find  its  source.  It  seemed  to  him  to  be  in  the 
direction  of  the  sink-hole.  He  appi-oached  it  softly, 
and  looking  down  into  it,  he  saw  the  doctor  on  his 
knees,  who,  just  at  that  time,  received  his  blessing, 
and,  in  a  very  earnest  manner,  gave  glory  fo  God,  and 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  31 

shouted  hosannas  to  his  name.  Lion  passed  on,  awe- 
struck with  the  scene  that  came  under  his  notice,  hav- 
ing, as  he  told  me  himself,  this  train  of  reflections : 
1  "Well,  there  was  a  man  who  could  not  be  a  hypo- 
crite ;  he  was  alone  and  concealed,  engaged  in  private 
prayer  with  God  for  a  blessing  on  his  soul.  He  wres- 
tled with  God,  and  prevailed.  Without  a  conscious- 
ness that  any  eye  was  upon  him  but  that  of  God,  he 
was  happy  under  his  blessing — a  proof  this  that  Chris- 
tianity is  founded  in  the  truth,  and  has  a  claim  on 
every  man/  His  reflections  fastened  conviction  on 
his  soul,  and  he  never  rested  until  he  too  sought  the 
God  of  all  grace,  and  realized  peace  with  God  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"In  his  family  devotions,  the  doctor  was  very 
fervid  and  full  of  feeling.  He  would  often  pause  in 
reading  a  chapter,  with  an  expression  of  admiration, 
a  word  of  exposition  or  application,  sometimes  ex- 
claiming, 'This  is  a  blessed  chapter !' 

"  In  his  later  days  he  lived  with  his  daughter, 
Mrs.  Mary  McKinney,  of  Newport,  Kentucky,  who 
had  a  little  son  to  whom  he  was  greatly  attached.  He 
taught  him,  at  the  conclusion  of  prayer  in  the  family, 
to  say  l  Amen.'  The  sound  of  the  little  boy's  voice 
on  that  word  would  thrill  him  with  peculiar  pleasure. 
On  rising  from  his  knees  he  would  cry  out,  t  Where 
is  he?'  would  run  to  him,  and  embrace  and  caress 
him  very  fondly. 

"At  his  own  table  he  would  require  his  grand- 
children to  come  around  the  table,  whether  they  could 
get  seats  or  not,  and  hold  their  hands  over  the  table 
until  he  w6uld  ask  a  blessing,  when  every  little  voice 


32  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

would  say,  '  Amen.'     This  afforded  him  a  high  sense 
of  pleasure. 

"  His  piety  was  not  morose — any  thing  but  a  sour 
godliness.  It  was  a  religion  of  love,  joy,  and  peace. 
His  reverence  and  affection  for  ministers  of  the  Gos- 
pel were  very  great.  On  their  arrival  at  his  house 
he  would  run  out  to  meet  them,  saying,  '  Come  in, 
thou  blessed  of  the  Lord,  come  in ! '  and  he  would 
embrace  them  in  his  arms.  He  esteemed  them  very 
highly  for  their  work's  sake. 

"As  might  well  be  supposed,  he  had  a  high  ap- 
preciation of  class-meetings.  Where  he  was  well  ac- 
quainted, and  a  preacher  who  was  less  acquainted 
might  be  leading  the  class,  he  would  sometimes  get 
before  the  preacher,  and  when  he  would  come  to  a 
good  case  he  would  say,  (  Here,  brother,  here  is  an 
humble  soul,  whom  God  blesses.'  Again,  '  Here  is  a 
prayerful  soul,  and  zealous  for  the  Lord.'  But  when 
he  had  not  so  much  confidence,  he  would  merely  an- 
nounce his  name,  and  after  the  leader  had  finished 
talking  to  him  he  would  stoop  down  and  say  to  him, 
'  You  must  pray  more.'  On  one  of  these  occasions  he 
was  conducting  a  preacher  round  the  class,  and  came 
to  his  wife,  and  said,  in  an  animated  tone  of  voice, 
1  Here  is  my  wife,  my  sister,  and  my  mother,'  allud- 
ing to  the  fact  that  his  wife  had  been  the  instrument 
of  his  conversion,  and  was,  therefore,  his  mother. 
The  preacher  paused,  reflected  awhile,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded. 

"A  prominent  trait  in  the  doctor's  character  was 
a  carelessness  of  worldly  goods.  This  was  carried, 
perhaps,  farther  than  might  be  commended.  He  had 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  33 

very  little  appreciation  of  them.  I  do  not  know  that 
he  ever  called  upon  any  persons  for  money  they  owed 
him ;  and  if  any  one  paid  him  money,  it  was  likely 
that  he  would  throw  it  into  the  lap  of  the  first  female 
member  he  passed  in  reaching  home,  and  pass  on.  It 
was  understood  that  he  gave  it  to  them. 

"After  giving  up  the  practice  of  medicine,  at  the 
solicitation  of  his  daughter  (then  Mrs.  Mary  Taylor), 
the  old  doctor  and  his  wife  lived  with  her  until  each 
one  of  them  died.  During  this  period  he  gave  him- 
self up  to  reading,  meditation,  .and  prayer,  and  ap- 
peared utterly  dead  to  all  worldly  cares  and  interests. 

"  The  subject  of  religion  seemed  always  present 
to  his  mind.  In  illustration  of  this,  several  charac- 
teristic anecdotes  of  him  are  told. 

"  He  was  one  day  standing  on  the  bank  of  the 
Ohio  River,  when  a  salt-boat  came  floating  by,  and  a 
man  on  the  boat  hailed  him,  and  asked,  '  How  is  salt 
selling?'  The  doctor  replied,  '  I  know  nothing  about 
salt;  I  know  that  grace  is  free/ 

"At  another  time  he  was  taking  a  morning  walk, 
and  met  Gen.  James  Taylor,  a  relative  by  marriage, 
who  said,  l  Good-morning,  doctor ;  where  are  you  go- 
ing?' 'I  am  going  to  heaven;  where  are  you  going, 
general?'  The  general,  at  that  time,  had  some  doubts 
whether  his  road  led  to  the  same  country,  and  made 
no  reply;  but  it  is  hoped  he  found  the  way  to  ever- 
lasting life  before  he  left  the  world. 

"  One  of  his  grandsons,  \Vm.  W.  Southgate,  was 
running  for  Congress,  and  the  race  was  a  close  one. 
Some  of  the  family  urged  th£  old  doctor  to  help  out 
his  relative*with  a  vote,  explaining  the  matter  to  him 


34  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

to  his  satisfaction,  and  he  promised  to  go  and  vote. 
So  he  started  off  to  the  court-house.  His  memory 
was  very  frail  at  this  time,  and  the  court-house  was 
the  place  at  which  he  was  accustomed  to  worship.  He 
walked  on  slowly,  humming  a  tune,  and  got  quite  in 
the  spirit  of  devotion  by  the  time  he  reached  the  court- 
house. He  walked  in,  and  the  judges  of  the  election, 
seeing  so  aged  a  man  coming  to  the  polls,  cried  out, 
'  Clear  the  way,  gentlemen,  and  let  Dr.  Hinde  vote. 
Whom  do  you  vote  for,  doctor  ? '  The  election  had 
gone  out  of  his  min,d  entirely.  He  looked  up  with 
an  air  of  surprise,  and  said,  '  Whom  do  I  vote  for? 
Why,  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  ever ! '  The 
judges  said,  'That  is  the  best  vote  cast  here  to-day, 
but  we  do  not  know  that  he  is  a  candidate  for  the 
position  now  in  question/  Meanwhile  one  of  his 
grandsons  said  to  him,  'Grandpa,  you  have  not  come 
to  meeting,  but  to  the  election.'  '  O,  yes,'  he  said,  ( I 
understand  it  now.'  He  then  voted  as  he  had  pur- 
posed. He  returned  home  full  of  holy  thoughts  and 
mellow  feelings,  and,  it  is  said,  some  one  asked  him 
where  he  had  been.  He  said,  '  I  have  been  to  meet- 
ing. We  had  a  glorious  time.' 

"  Particularly  in  relation  to  recent  events  his  mem- 
ory was  very  treacherous.  I  was  once  in  his  presence, 
in  the  second  year  of  my  itinerancy,  when  he  looked 
at  me  with  an  inquiring  look,  and  said, '  Brother  Kav- 
anaugh,  where  did  you  come  from  ?  Did  you  come 
from  Virginia  ? '  I  told  him,  (  No  ;  I  am  a  native 
Kentuckian,  but  my  ancestors  were  all  from  Virginia. 
My  grandfather,  Dr.  Thomas  Hinde,  was  an  early  im- 
migrant to  Kentucky,  and  settled  in  Clarke  County.' 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  35 

'  What ! '  said  he,  '  Hannah's  son  ?  >  <  Yes,  sir/  He 
rose  from  his  chair,  and,  seizing  me  round  the  neck, 
exclaimed,  f  Whom  the  Lord  calls,  he  qualifies.  Be 
faithful  to  your  calling/  And  yet,  in  this  same  inter- 
view, he  told  me  when  he  was  examined  on  his  stud- 
ies as  a  student  of  medicine  the  questions  that  were 
asked  him,  and  the  answers  he  gave.  In  allusion  to 
this  failure  of  memory  in  his  advanced  age  he  was 
once  heard  to  say,  1 1  have  forgotten  my  dear  friends 
and  my  children ;  but,  glory  to  God,  I  have  never 
forgotten  my  Savior.' 

"  Of  the  last  days  and  dying  exercises  of  my  grand- 
father I  have  never  been  particularly  informed.  The 
only  item  that  I  now  distinctly  remember  being  re- 
ferred to  was  his  desire  that  his  wife,  with  whom  he 
had  spent  so  happy  a  life,  should  die  with  him.  One 
of  the  last  things  he  did  was  to  feel  her  pulse,  when 
he  said,  '  Honey,  you  can  not  go/  It  is  strange  to 
myself  that  I  am  not  better  informed  as  to  his  dying 
exercises ;  but  I  have  no  anxiety  as  to  the  death  of  a 
man  who,  while  living  rejoiced  evermore,  prayed  with- 
out ceasing,  and  in  all  things  gave  thanks.  His  end 
must  be  peace.  He  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-two 
years,  and  passed  away  to  the  country  '  where  there 
is  no  more  death/ '] 

This  sketch  of  Dr.  Hinde  will  show  our  readers 
the  character  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  in 
Methodist  history.  The  soul  of  honor  in  the  ordi- 
nary walks  of  life,  and  as  a  Christian  blameless  and 
pure.  From  the  time  Dr.  Hinde  became  a  member 
of  the  Methodist  Church  until  his  death,  his  life  was 
an  exemplification  of  the  truth  of  the  religion  he  pro- 


36  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

fessed.  He  carried  his  Christianity  into  all  the  walks 
of  life — into  the  homes  of  his  patients,  to  the  couch 
of  the  sick  and  the  dying,  as  well  as  into  the  family 
circle.  With  the  same  zeal  that  had  distinguished  his 
opposition  to  Christ  previous  to  his  conversion  he 
prosecuted  the  duties  of  Christian  life,  exhibiting  to 
all  the  genuineness  of  his  conversion,  and  his  abiding 
trust  in  the  atoning  merits  of  the  Son  of  God.  He 
loved  the  Church  with  a  pure  heart  fervently.  He 
lived  to  a  ripe  old  age,  and  when  his  memory  became 
oblivious  to  every  thing  else,  religion  to  him  was  fresh 
and  green;  and  when  unable  to  converse  upon  any 
other  subject,  religion,  that  amid  life's  vicissitudes 
had  so  often  cheered  his  heart  and  animated  his  hopes, 
afforded  him  a  theme  of  which  he  never  grew  weary. 

Mrs.  Mary  Todd  Hinde  was  an  extraordinary 
woman,  and  in  the  early  history  of  Methodism  in  Ken- 
tucky bore  a  prominent  part.  She  was  the  daughter 
of  Benjamin  Hubbard,  an  English  merchant.  On  the 
24th  of  September,  1767,  she  was  married  to  Dr. 
Thomas  Hinde.  Descended  from  an  excellent  family, 
favored  with  the  best  educational  advantages  of  her 
times,  her  mind  well  cultivated,  easy  and  graceful  in 
her  manners,  charitable  in  her  views  of  the  words 
and  deeds  of  others,  and  occupying  a  high  social  po- 
sition, she  imparted  happiness  to  the  society  in  whose 
circle  she  moved. 

For  many  years  after  her  marriage  she  lived  with- 
out the  comforts  of  religion.  The  great  aversion  of 
her  husband  to  Christianity  was  a  hindrance  to  the 
cultivation  of  any  religious  emotions  that  may  have 
impressed  her  heart. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  37 

Hannah  Hubbard,  one  of  her  daughters,  became 
impressed  upon  the  subject  of  religion,  and  in  an  in- 
terview with  her  mother,  the  latter  also  became  awak- 
ened. A  short  time  afterward,  preaching  was  intro- 
duced into  the  neighborhood  in  which  she  resided  by 
Methodist  preachers,  and,  under  their  preaching,  she 
was  more  fully  instructed  in  the  way  of  salvation,  and 
was  converted  to  God. 

In  her  early  efforts  to  become  religious,  she  was 
met  by  the  opposition  of  her  husband.  Refusing  to 
furnish  her  with  a  horse  to  ride  to  Church,  she  walked 
regularly  to  the  house  of  God.  Unwilling  to  yield 
her  purpose  to  become  a  Christian,  no  argument  could 
induce  her  to  abandon  it.  Declaring  his  belief  that 
his  wife  was  losing  her  mind,  he  applied  a  blister  to 
her  neck — as  already  stated — to  bring  her  to  her  senses. 
In  this  condition  she  went  to  the  place  of  prayer. 
The  sufferings  she  bore,  together  with  the  patience  she 
evinced  under  them,  had  an  effect  contrary  to  the  ex- 
pectations of  her  husband.  It  terminated  in  his  awak- 
ening, but  not  in  the  curing  of  his  wife. 

We  copy  the  following  from  a  letter  we  received 
from  her  grandson,  Bishop  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  dated 
Lexington,  Kentucky,  April  14,  1868 : 

"  Faith  in  the  promises  of  God,  and  the  efficacy 
of  the  blood  of  the  atoning  Lamb,  was  much  more 
efficient  to  the  removal  of  her  distracting  grief  and 
burdened  soul.  How  long  she  was  seeking  the  par- 
don of  her  sins  until  she  obtained  peace  with  God 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  I  am  not  informed; 
but  having  obtained  the  pearl  of  great  price,  she  beau- 
tifully illustrated  its  value  by  a  godly  conversation — 


38  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

walking  '  worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  she  was 
called.' 

"After  Mrs.  Hinde  and  her  husband  were  fully 
enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  Captain  of  their  salva- 
tion, they  removed  to  Kentucky,  and  settled  in  Clarke 
County.  Here  she  became  instrumental  in  the  organ- 
ization of  a  class,  afterward  known  as  the  Ebenezer 
Church.  In  this  neighborhood  the  purity  of  her  life, 
the  sweetness  of  her  spirit,  together  w'ith  the  clearness 
of  her  mind,  were  all  elements  of  usefulness. 

"  Under  the  influence  of  the  French  infidelity  of 
the  day,  there  was  at  that  time  a  good  deal  of  that 
form  of  skepticism  which  was  styled  deism.  Its  ad- 
herents admitted  the  existence  of  one  God,  denied  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  One  of  her 
neighbors,  Major  John  Martin,  who  was  an  adherent 
of  this  doctrine,  was  indulging  in  a  little  pleasant 
raillery,  ridiculing  her  religion  ay  being  untrue,  irra- 
tional, and  not  worthy  of  belief.  In  a  kind  and  gen- 
tle tone  of  voice  she  said  to  him,  l  Major  Martin,  the 
Christian  religion  may  be  true.'  The  expression  fas- 
tened strongly  upon  the  major.  He  said  afterward 
that,  on  his  way  home,  the  thought  was  constantly  re- 
volving in  his  mind,  The  Christian  religion  may  be  true. 
The  manner  of  the  major  was  rather  blunt  and  pointed ; 
so  he  said  to  himself,  'If  the  Christian  religion  is  true, 
it  is  an  awful  truth  to  me.'  And  as  he  pondered  the 
great  facts  of  religion,  before  he  reached  his  home  he 
said  to  himself,  '  The  Christian  religion  is  true,  and  I 
am  a  sinner,  and  on  the  way  to  hell.'  He  hastened 
home,  called  for  the  Testament,  and  betook  himself 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  39 

to  prayer,  in  which  he  persisted  until  he  had  the 
knowledge  of  salvation  by  the  remission  of  sins.  From 
that  time  he  was  an  uncompromising  soldier  of  the 
cross  and  follower  of  the  Lamb,  until  he  closed  his 
life  in  peace. 

"  Mrs.  Hinde  had  a  singularly  clear  and  distinct 
memory  of  the  events  of  her  life  and  observation.  Un- 
like the  doctor,  her  memory  never  failed  her.  When 
in  advanced  age  she  became  apprehensive  that  she 
should  lose  her  eye-sight,  as  her  eyes  were  weak  and 
failing,  she  thought  that  one  of  the  most  gloomy  fea- 
tures of  that  calamity  would  be  the  deprivation  of 
the  pleasure  and  profit  of  reading  the  good  books  that 
had  so  often  cheered  her  heart  and  edified  her  mind. 

"  To  relieve,  in  some  measure,  the  calamity  she 
saw  coming  upon  her,  she  committed  to  memory  a 
large  portion  of  Baxter's  '  Saints'  Rest/  and  an  as- 
tonishing amount  of  the  practical  remarks  of  Scott's 
Commentary,  some  of  the  sermons  of  Wesley  most 
admired  by  her,  and  some  other  authors  that  I  can 
not  now  remember,  and  forty  hymns.  I  have  held 
the  book  and  heard  her  recite  for  an  hour  at  a  time, 
and  she  but  rarely  miscalled  a  word ;  and  those  she 
would  miss  were  a  mere  substitution  of  the  little  con- 
nective forms  of  speech  that  did  not  much  affect  the 
sense.  The  satisfaction  she  realized  in  this,  she  said, 
well  rewarded  her  for  the  labor  of  committing.  Even 
in  her  blindness  she  was  cheerful,  devoted  to  her 
Christian  duties,  and  resigned  to  the  will  of  God. 

"  I  do  not  remember  any  detail  of  her  dying  ex- 
ercises which  I  may  have  heard.  lint  her  race  is  ended, 
the  battle  is  fought,  and  the  long  anticipated  crown 


40  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

has  been  bestowed.  How  glorious  it  is  to  think  that 
her  grand  attainments  through  grace  are  hers  for- 
ever ! " 

Dr.  Hinde  and  his  wife  had  seven  children,  all  of 
whom  were  distinguished  for  probity  of  character  and 
for  fine  intellectual  endowments.  Among  them,  how- 
ever, was  one  of  eclipsing  superiority,  who,  in  the 
hands  of  God,  was  the  honored  instrument  in  bring- 
ing^the  entire  family  to  Christ. 

Hannah  Hubbard  Hinde  was  born  in  Hanover 
County,  Virginia,  March  6,  1777.  In  her  early  child- 
hood she  evinced  those  qualities  of  candor  and  firm- 
ness which,  at  a  later  period,  gave  her  an  influence 
for  good  that  extended  throughout  the  large  circle  of 
her  acquaintance.  When  only  a  child  she  attended 
Methodist  preaching,  and  became  awakened  to  a  sense 
of  her  condition  before  God  as  a  sinner.  Although 
her  mother  was  not  religious,  yet  the  daughter  com- 
municated to  her  the  religious  impressions  she  felt. 
The  mother  too  became  awakejied,  and  soon  both  were 
converted  to  God,  the  daughter  preceding  the  mother 
into  the  kingdom  of  grace. 

At  the  time  of  her  conversion  Hannah  was  only 
twelve  years  of  age..  The  fact  that  she  had  made  a 
profession  of  religion  aroused  the  wrath  of  her  hitherto 
indulgent  father,  and  induced  an  opposition  that  tested 
the  faith  of  one  so  young.  All  efforts  on  his  part  to 
persuade  her  to  abandon  the  profession  she  had  made 
only  contributed  to  her  fidelity  to  the  Church,  which 
in  time  exerted  a  salutary  influence  on  the  life  of  her 
father,  which,  added  to  the  bright  Christian  example 
of  her  mother,  led  him  to  Christ. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  41 

In  1797  Dr.  Hinde  removed  to  Kentucky,  and 
settled  in  Clarke  County,  a  beautiful  and  cultured 
portion  of  the  State.  His  daughter  was  just  twenty 
years  of  age,  combining  the  remarkable  gifts  of  her 
father  with  the  charms  and  graces  of  her  excellent 
mother.  In  person  she  was  attractive,  her  social  qual- 
ities scarcely  equaled,  while  in  conversation  she  ex- 
celled, with  an  entire  exemption  from  all  the  frivolities 
so  incident  to  the  young.  In  addition  to  all  these, 
her  piety  was  uniform,  deep,  and  abiding. 

The  conference  of  1797  was  held  May  1st,  at  Bethel 
School,  in  Jessamine  County,  adjoining  the  county  to 
which  Dr.  Hinde  had  removed.  The  session  was  held 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Lexington  Circuit,  in  which 
was  the  home  of  the  doctor.  Having  just  arrived  in 
Kentucky,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  he  and  his 
wife  and  daughter  were  visitors  on  the  occasion,  as  in 
that  early  day  another  opportunity  might  not  soon  oc- 
cur for  the  enjoyment  of  such  a  privilege.  If  so,  it 
was  at  this  conference  that  Williams  Kavanaugh  first 
met  Hannah  Hubbard  Hinde.  He  was  less  than  two 
years  her  senior,  and  the  most  gifted  young  preacher 
in  the  West.  As  we  have  already  seen,  he  was  this 
year  appointed  to  Franklin  Circuit,  in  Virginia,  and 
to  Salt  River,  in  Kentucky,  spending  six  months  on 
each,  as  was  often  the  custom  in  that  day. 

While  in  Virginia  prosecuting  his  work,  his 
thoughts  ofttimes  reverted  to  the  home  of  Dr.  Hinde. 
He  returned  to  Kentucky  about  the  first  of  Novem- 
ber, and  entered  upon  his  duties  on  the  Salt  River 
Circuit,  with  the  good  Henry  Smith  in  charge.  His 
presiding  elder  was  John  Kobler. 

4 


42  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

If  Mr.  Kavanaugh  had  not  asked  the  hand  of 
Miss  Hinde  before  he  went  to  Virginia  he  did  not 
long  delay  this  question  after  his  return  to  Kentucky. 
He  writes  to  his  presiding  elder,  consulting  him,  as 
most  young  preachers  do,  after  his  own  mind  had  fully 
decided,  and  all  his  arrangements  were  completed.  We 
have  before  us  the  reply  of  Mr.  Kobler.  He  writes : 

"  VERY  DEAR  BROTHER, — Last  Sunday  I  received 
your  letter,  in  which  you  inform  me  of  your  intention 
to  enter  a  new  untried  station  of  life.  Of  this  every 
man  is  the  most  competent  judge  for  himself.  After 
long  observation,  I  am  of  opinion  it  is  a  situation  cal- 
culated to  render  a  man  the  most  completely  happy, 
or  miserable,  of  any  other  on  the  present  stage  of 
existence.  It  ought  to  be  entered  into  with  tardy 
steps  and  much  prayer  to  God.  I  think  it  would  have 
been  better  for  .you  to  have  traveled  longer,  as  the 
circuits  have  but  a  partial  supply.  I  feel  most  ten- 
derly for  the  interest  of  our  cause,  and  am  jealous  at 
every  appearance  that  might  operate  against  it.  Be 
cautious  in  your  engagement,  and  strive  to  act  with 
that  prudence  becoming  the  minister  and  Christian. 
I  remain  your  affectionate  brother, 

"J.  KOBLER. 

"  February  28th." 

On  the  29th  of  March,  1798,  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Hannah  H.,  daughter  of  Dr.  Thomas  Hinde; 
and  at  the  ensuing  conference  he  asked  for  and  ob- 
tained a  location. 

To  the  preacher  who  married  at  that  period,  when 
the  allowance  of  a  traveling  preacher,  whether  mar- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  43 

ried  or  single,  was  only  sixty-four  dollars  a  year,  loca- 
tion was  a  necessity. 

While  we  deeply  regret  that  a  minister  who  prom- 
ised so  much  usefulness  to  the  Church  as  did  Mr. 
Kavanaugh  should  have  retired  from  the  itinerant 
field,  yet  we  can  not  be  insensible  to  the  reasons  that 
decided  him  in  this  purpose.  The  vast  extent  of  ter- 
ritory embraced  in  a  single  circuit,  separating  a  min- 
ister from  his  family  nearly  all  the  time,  together  with 
the  difficulty  of  obtaining  the  most  meager  support, 
influenced  him  to  this  step.* 

In  his  local  relation,  however,  he  was  not  idle. 
His  name  stands  recorded  as  one  of  the  eight  persons 
who  formed  the  first  class  at  Ebenezer,f  in  Clarke 
County.  Spending  the  principal  portion  of  the  week 
in  teaching  school,  he  devoted  his  Sabbaths  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  in  which  he  had  already  at- 
tained eminence.  His  mind,  however,  had  no  rest. 
He  was  then  an  ordained  deacon.  He  felt  the  incon- 
gruity of  such  an  office  in  the  Church  without  a  pas- 
toral relation,  and  the  more  he  pondered  the  duties 
devolving  upon  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  the  more  un- 
pleasant he  felt  to  hold  the  office  without  an  oppor- 
tunity to  discharge  the  duties  involved.  He  was  not 
willing  to  be  what  was  but  a  little  more  than  a  nom- 
inal minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  this  gave  him  much 

*  Among  the  preachers  who  were  traveling  in  this  division 
of  the  work,  Messrs.  Burke  and  Page  were  the  only  married 
men  who  had  been  able  to  continue  in  the  itinerancy. 

t  Bishop  Kavanaugh  writes  us  from  Lexington,  Kentucky, 
March  11,  1868:  "I  learn  from  my  mother  that  he  gave  the 
church  the  name  it  bears,  or  rather  has  borne,  in  the  various 
edifices  which  the  society  there  has  erected." 


44  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

disquietude  of  mind.  Some  gentlemen  of  the  bar  urged 
him  to  study  law  and  enter  upon  the  practice,  stating 
that  his  talents — analytical  and  strongly  discrimina- 
tive— eminently  fitted  him  for  that  profession ;  but 
his  convictions  were  that  it  was  his  duty  to  preach  the 
Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God,  and  that  he  dare  not  com- 
promise this  duty. 

While  in  this  state  of  mind,  Dr.  Warfield,  a  dis- 
tinguished citizen  of  Lexington — a  vestryman  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  that  city,  the  rector- 
ship of  which  was  then  vacant — made  his  acquaint- 
ance, and  placing  a  high  estimate  on  his  character 
and  ability  as  a  minister,  proposed  to  him  that  if  he 
would  take  orders  in  the  Episcopal  Church  they  would 
be  glad  to  employ  him  as  their  minister. 

He  requested  Dr.  Warfield  to  allow  him  a  little 
time  to  reflect  on  the  subject,  and  said,  "  If  I  can  do 
so  without  a  violation  of  principle,  and  preach  'the  doc- 
trines I  believe  to  be  true  and  Scriptural,  I  may  ac- 
cept your  offer." 

After  an  examination  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles, 
and  looking  into  the  usages  and  customs  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  he  believed  that  he  was  not  necessarily 
compelled  to  adopt  the  Calvinistic  doctrines,  and  that 
there  would  be  no  violation  of  principle  in  taking  .the 
proposed  step,  and  that  by  accepting  the  offer  he  would 
be  enabled  to  give  all  his  time  and  labors  to  his  call- 
ing as  a  minister  of  Christ.  He  gave  to  Dr.  Warfield 
an  affirmative  answer  to  his  proposition.* 

The  vestry  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Lexington 

*  The  above  facts  were  related  to  his  son,  Rev.  B.  T.  Kav- 
anaugh,  D.  D.,  by  Dr.  Warfield  in  1823. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  45 

immediately  drew  up  and  signed  an  address  to  Bishop 
Claggett,  then  residing  in  Baltimore,  requesting  him 
that,  after  proper  examination,  he  would  ordain  and 
send  to  their  Church  Mr.  Kavanaugh  as  their  rector. 
After  reaching  Baltimore,  and  delivering  his  letters  to 
the  bishop,  he  was  invited  to  take  tea  with  him,  Avhen 
a  number  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  would  be  present. 
At  the  appointed  time  Mr.  Kavanaugh  met  the  bishop 
and  clergymen,  as  he  supposed,  to  spend  a  social  hour. 
During  the  interview  Bishop  Claggett  proposed  sev- 
eral points  of  doctrine  as  topics  of  discussion,  on  which 
each  expressed  his  views  freely,  Mr.  Kavanaugh  among 
the  rest.  At  the  close  of  the  interview  the  invited 
clergymen  all  arose,  and  expressed  their  satisfaction 
with  the  result.  The  bishop,  in  reply,  in  a  very  cor- 
dial manner,  said,  "I  too  am  perfectly  satisfied;"  and 
added,  in  a  pleasant  manner,  "  I  believe  Mr.  Kavan- 
augh is  the  best  theologian  among  us."  Mr.  Kav- 
anaugh now  discovered  for  the  first  time  that  he  had 
been  passing  an  examination. 

We  have  before  us  the  parchments  of  Mr.  Kavan- 
augh, signed  by  Bishop  Claggett,  of  which  the  follow- 
ing are  copies : 

"  THOMAS  JOHN  CLAGGETT,  D.  D.,  and  Bishop  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Churdi  in  the  Slate  of  Maryland,  to  my 
beloved  in  Christ,  the  REV".  WILLIAMS  KAVANAUGH, 
sendeth  greeting: 

"  I  do  hereby  give,  and  grant  unto  you,  the  said 
WILLIAMS  KAVANAUGH,  of  whose  fidelity,  learning, 
sound  doctrine,  and  diligence  I  fully  confide,  my  license 
and  authority  (to  continue  only  during  my  pleasure) 


46  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

to  perform  ye  office  of  a  priest  in  the  State  of  Ken- 
tucky in  preaching  the  Word  of  God,  ministering  his 
holy  sacraments,  reading  ye  book  of  common  prayer 
lately  set  forth  by  authority  of  the  General  Conven- 
tion of  ye  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  according  to  ye  form  prescribed, 
and  not  otherwise,  or  in  any  other  manner  ;  and  also 
all  other  functions  appertaining  to  ye  said  office,  you 
having  first  been  by  me  regularly  and  canonically  or- 
dained a  deacon  and  priest  in  the  said  Church,  and 
having  in  my  presence  subscribed  ye  declaration  re- 
quired by  ye  seventh  canon  of  ye  General  Convention, 
and  solemnly  promised  a  strict  conformity  to  ye  doc- 
trines and  worship  of  ye  said  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 

"  In  testimony  of  all  which,  I  have  subscribed  my 
name,  and  caused  my  seal  to  be  hereunto  affixed,  this 
twentieth  day  of  June,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred. 

"THOMAS  JN°.  CLAGGETT." 

"  Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  That  I,  THOMAS 
JOHN  CLAGGETT,  D.  D.,  by  divine  permission  bishop 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  State  of 
Maryland,  holding  by  the  assistance  of  Almighty  God 
a  general  ordination  on  'the  feast  of  Trinity,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred,  in  Christ 
Church,  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  did  admit  my  be- 
loved in  Christ,  WILLIAMS  KAVANAUGH,  of  whose 
virtuous  and  pious  life  and  conversation,  and  compe- 
tent learning  and  knowledge  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
I  was  well  assured,  into  holy  order  of  deacons,  ac- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  47 

cording  to  the  manner  and  form  prescribed  and  used 
by  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America ;  and  him,  the  said  Williams  Kav- 
anaugh,  did  then  and  there  rightly  and  canonically  or- 
dain a  deacon,  he  having  first  in  my  presence  made 
the  subscription  required  in  the  seventh  article  of  our 
General  Constitution. 

"In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  affixed  my 
episcopal  seal,  the  day  and  year  above  written,  and  my 
consecration  the  eighth. 

"THOMAS  JN°.  CLAGGETT." 

After  entering  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
and  remaining  for  awhile  in  Lexington,  he  was  called 
to  Louisville,  serving  in  connection  with  a  Church  in 
that  city;  one  also  in  Shelby  County. 

At  a  later  period,  under  the  influence  of  General 
Hopkins,  he  was  induced  to  accept  a  call  to  Hender- 
son, where,  after  a  few  years  of  useful  labor,  he  died 
in  peace,  October  16,  1806. 

Reared  under  Methodist  influences,  blessed  with 
the  example  and  the  instruction  of  pious  parents  from 
his  childhood,  converted,  and  having  entered  the  min- 
istry when  only  a  youth,  during  the  entire  period  of 
his  connection  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
his  piety  shone  with  resplendent  luster.  As  a  preacher 
"  he  was  not  boisterous,  but  fluent,  ready,  and  his  ser- 
mons smoothly  delivered;  his  style  perspicuous,  and 
every  word  expressive  of  the  idea  intended." 

However  much  we  may  regret  that  he  was  influ- 
enced to  make  any  change  in  his  Church-relations,  it 
is  gratifying  to  know  that  he  carried  into  the  com- 


48  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

muniou  which  he  entered  the  deep  piety  and  devotion 
to  the  work  of  the  ministry  that  distinguished  him  as 
an  evangelist  in  the  Church  of  his  father.  Judge  Scott 
says :  "  He  sustained  an  excellent  character  until  he 
died." 

We  close  this  sketch  with  the  following  letter,  re- 
ceived by  us  from  the  Rev.  B.  B0  Smith,  D.  D.,  the 
senior  bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  United  States: 

"  Some  years  after  I  entered  upon  the  office  of  the 
first  bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
diocese  of  Kentucky,  it  occurred  to  me  that  it  might 
become  a  matter  of  some  interest  to  those  who  should 
come  after  me  if  I  were  at  some  pains  to  collect  such 
fragmentary  notices  as  I  could  obtain  of  those  early 
clergy  who  accompanied  the  first  colonies  which  came 
to  Kentucky,  chiefly  from  Virginia.  Some  of  these 
notices  were  not  at  all  creditable  to  the  characters  of 
some  of  the  colonial  clergy.  For  example:  Dr.  Cham- 
bers, of  Xelson  County,  fell  in  a  duel  with  the  cele- 
brated Judge  Rowan ;  and  the  distinguished  Judge 
Sebastian,  who -escaped  impeachment  by  resigning — 
on  the  accusation,  which  proved  susceptible  of  a  favor- 
able interpretation,  of  receiving  a  pension  from  the 
Spanish  governor  of  Louisiana.  The  letters  of  orders 
of  both  these,  and  of  that  amiable  and  blameless  Swe- 
denborgian,  Dr.  Gant,  of  Louisville,  by  bishops  in  Eng- 
land, were  submitted  to  my  inspection. 

"The  most  favorable  impression  made  by  any  of 
them  upon  my  mind,  was  made,  by  all  that  I  could 
learn,  by  the  Rev.  Williams  Kavanaugh,  of  Hender- 
son, who,  however,  was  .not  ordained  in  England,  but 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  49 

cither  by  Bishop  White,  of  Pennsylvania,  or  by  Bishop 
Madison,  of  Virginia,  if  I  remember  aright."  * 

We  pause  to  reflect  for  a  moment  on  the  mysteri- 
ous ways  of  Divine  Providence.  Mr.  Kavanaugh  when 
he  died  was  in  the  morning  of  a  life  that  promised 
great  usefulness  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  He  was  only 
thirty-one  years  of  age,  blessed  with  a  happy  home, 
where  words  of  cheer  were  constantly  spoken. 

We  are  already  familiar  with  the  motives  that  led 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  to  change  his  Church  relations ;  it  is, 
however,  gratifying  to  be  able  to  record  that,  while 
his  wife  exerted  every  effort  within  her  power  to  pro- 
mote both  his  happiness  and  usefulness  in  the  com- 
munion into  which  he  had  entered,  yet  she  adhered 
with  unfaltering  devotion  to  the  Church  through  whose 
influence  she  had  been  brought  to  Christ.  She  was 
left  a  widow  with  six  children,  and  with  limited  means. 
In  the  darkest  hours  of  her  widowhood  she  enjoyed 
unwavering  confidence  in  the  promises  of  God,  for 
herself  and  her  children.  At  proper  ages  she  placed 
her  sons  where  they  might  learn  useful  trades,  and  be 
trained  to  habits  of  industry.  After  the  death  of  her 
first  husband  in  1806,  she  remained  a  widow  for  six 
years,  mostly  at  the  old  homestead  of  her  father,  then 
occupied  by  her  eldest  brother,  John  W.  Hinde,  in 
Clarke  County.  In  1812  she  was  married  to  Mr. 
William  Taylor,  a  native  of  Ireland,  but  who  was 
brought  up  and  trained  to  business  in  England.  By 
this  marriage  she  had  two  sons,  William  and  Edmund 
Todd.  William  died  before  he  was  grown,  and  Ed- 
mund remained  with  her  at  home,  full  of  attention 

*  As  we  have  seen,  he  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Claggett. 
5 


50  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  kindness,  until  her  third  marriage;  her  second 
husband  having  died  in  1814.  She  remained  a  widow 
for  two  or  three  years,  and  was  again  married,  to  Mr. 
Valentine  Martin,  by  which  marriage  she  had  two 
daughters,  Martha  and  Ann  Southgate.  Ann  lived  to 
be  grown  and  married,  but  died  soon  after.  Her  sec- 
ond husband  was  a  religious,  good  man ;  and  his  sur- 
viving son,  Edmund,  occupies  a  high  position  in  public 
confidence  and  esteem.  Her  third  husband  was  a  near 
neighbor  before  marriage,  and  though  not  religious  at 
the  time,  yet  under  the  influence  of  his  pious  wife  he 
became  so,  and  made  for  her  a  kind  and  devoted  hus- 
band. Under  the  influence  and  example  of  this  ex- 
cellent woman  each  of  her  children,  as  they  arrived 
at  the  age  of  discretion,  one  by  one  joined  the  Church 
of  their  mother,  and  ever  maintained  a  Christian  char- 
acter. Her  son,  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  in  speaking  of 
her,  says :  "  The  leading  characteristics  that  marked 
the  life  of  my  mother  were  those  of  patience,  forti- 
tude, a  trust  in  God,  and  a  steady  hope  in  his  provi- 
dence ;  a  general  affection  for  all  good  people,  and  a 
generous  concern  for  the  bad ;  a  deep  and  abiding 
sympathy  for  the  poor  and  the  unfortunate ;  a  strong 
attachment  to  the  cause  of  God,  his  Church,  and  the 
ministry.  She  had  been  paralyzed  by  a  stroke  of  palsy 
for  several  years  previous  to  her  death  that  gradually 
robbed  her  of  her  action  until  she  could  not  walk  at 
all.  In  this  condition  she  gave  herself  to  much  med- 
itation and  singing,  or  humming,  the  tunes  in  which 
she  had  been  accustomed  to  praise  God."  Her  last 
moments  were  full  of  triumph.  None  of  her  sons 
were  present  except  Hubbard.  When  he  found  she 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  51 

was  near  her  end,  lie  asked  her  if  she  was  aware  of 
the  fact  that  she  was  now  dying.  She  simply  replied, 
"  Yes,  I  know  it."  He  asked  again,  "  Well,  mother, 
ho\v  do  you  feel  in  reference  to  your  departure?"  Her 
only  reply  was, "  READY  ! "  O,  how  expressive !  What 
a  depth  of  fullness  and  perfection  in  this  laconic  and 
all-expressive  word,  "Ready!"  A  long  life  had  bee*h 
spent  in  the  strictest  care  and  untiring  labors — to  be 
able  at  last  to  say,  "  READY  " — ready  to  depart  in 
peace — ready  to  enter  upon  an  eternal  rest,  and  the 
reward  of  the  faithful !  Her  duties  to  God,  the  world, 
and  her  children  had  been  now  all  faithfully  discharged, 
and  she  was  ready  to  die.  On  the  llth  of  January, 
1852,  at  the  residence  of  her  son-in-law,  Mr.  John 
Stevens,  in  Madison  County,  she  passed  away. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  very  proud  of  his  wife,  and 
justly  so.  Leroy  Cole,  Captain  Richardson,  and  Ed- 
mund Taylor  had  all  married  daughters  of  Dr.  Hinde. 
On  one  occasion  he  said  to  Lcroy  Cole,  "You  three 
gentlemen  had  the  first  chances  in  selecting  wives 
from  Dr.  Hinde's  family,  but  you  failed  to  secure  the 
flower  of  the  flock.  She  was  left  for  me." 

Thomas  Williams  Kavanaugh  was  their  first  child. 
He  was  born  January  5, 1799,  in  Clarke  County,  Ken- 
tucky. At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  employed  as  dep- 
uty in  the  clerk's  office  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of 
Kentucky,  at  Frankfort.  He  agreed  to  serve  for  six 
years  under  the  guardianship  of  Achilles  Snead,  an  old 
friend  of  his  father's,  and  soon  gained  a  good  reputa- 
tion for  his  efficiency  and  skill. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  on  visiting  the  United 
States  arsenal  at  Newport,  Kentucky,  he  was  induced 


52  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

by  the  officers  there  to  apply  under  their  recommen- 
dation for  a  commission  in  the  United  States  army, 
which  was  granted,  and  he  was  commissioned  first 
lieutenant,  and  assigned  to  duty  under  Colonel  John- 
son, who  was  just  about  to  embark  for  Yellow  Stone, 
on  the  Missouri  River,  where  he  rendered  three  years' 
service.  His  health  failing,  he  was  given  a  furlough 
to  return  to  his  home  in  Kentucky.  He  reached 
Frankfort,  but  was  unable  to  proceed  further.  He 
sent  a  message  to  his  mother  and  his  brother  Hub- 
bard,  who  immediately  went  to  see  him.  He  lived 
but  a  few  days.  The  hope  was  entertained  that  he 
died  in  peace.  His  death  occurred  May  29,  1823. 

The  second  son,  Leroy  Harrison,  was  born  in  Clarke 
County,  Kentucky,  May  29,  1800.  When  in  his  fif- 
teenth year,  while  reading  Baxter's  "  Call  to  the  Un- 
converted," he  was  awakened  to  a  sense  of  his  condi- 
tion as  a  sinner.  In  the  Autumn  of  1815  he  and  his 
sister  Mary  attended  a  camp-meeting  near  Cynthiana, 
where  both  brother  and  sister  were  happily  converted. 
Deeply  pious  and  remarkably  zealous,  yet  his  useful- 
ness seemed  to  be  greatly  impaired  by  an  impediment 
in  his  speech,  which  affected  him  in  conversation,  yet 
was  no  embarrassment  in  singing.  His  step-father, 
Mr.  Taylor,  was  a  fuller  or  cloth  dresser,  and  to  this 
business  Leroy  was  brought  up. 

In  the  nineteenth  year  of  his  age  he  married  Miss 
Rachel  Martin,  and  in  course  of  time  removed  to  Illi- 
nois and  settled  at  Mount  Carmel,  where  he  lived 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  November,  1864. 

But  few  men  exerted  a  wider  influence  in  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived  than  Leroy  Kavanaugh. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  53 

When  in  1836  William  McMurtry  was  appointed  to 
the  circuit  in  which  Mr.  Kavanaugh  lived,  not  being 
aware  that  he  stammered,  after  concluding  his  sermon 
he  invited  him  to  exhort.  Without  any  hesitation  he 
arose,  and  without  the  slightest  impediment  in  his 
speech  delivered  an  exhortation  of  great  power,  and 
then  sung  and  prayed.  The  Church  was  taken  by  sur- 
prise, and  after  the  close  of  the  service  gathered  around 
him,  and  with  one  voice  exclaimed,  "  Brother  Kavan- 
augh, we  never  before  knew  that  you  could  talk  with- 
out stammering.  You  must  have  license  to  preach." 
After  going  through  the  prescribed  forms  of  the 
Church  he  received  authority  to  preach  the  Gospel, 
and  became  one  of  the  most  eloquent  preachers  in  all 
that  country.  His  services  were  in  demand  as  far  as 
he  was  known,  and  under  his  earnest  appeals  and  by 
the  influence  of  his  godly  life  hundreds  were  brought 
to  Christ — the  impression  prevailing  that  he  was  the 
peer  of  either  of  his  gifted  brothers. 

His  character  was  marked  by  inflexible  integrity, 
while  his  bright  Christian  example  recommended  the 
religion  he  professed.  His  death,  so  full  of  triumph, 
cast  a  shadow  over  other  homes  than  his  own.  He 
was  buried  in  the  Odd  Fellows'  cemetery,  where,  by 
the  side  of  his  wife,  he  will  sleep  quietly  until  the 
resurrection  of  the  just. 

A  letter  from  his  brother,  Rev.  B.  T.  Kavanaugh, 
says :  "  On  visiting  the  old  home  of  my  brother  in  the 
Winter  of  1878  and  1879,  I  was  taken  by  a  delight- 
ful surprise;  to  find  a  beautiful  monument  to  the  mem- 
ory of  my  brother,  whose  Christian  life  and  character 
was  all  that  I  could  have  wished.  When  I  told  Hub- 


54  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

bard  that  I  had  found  a  monument,  large  and  grace- 
ful, marking  the  spot  where  the  remains  of  Leroy  lay, 
an  honor  bestowed  by  the  community  where  he  lived 
and  died,  he  exclaimed  :  (  Why,  is  it  possible  ?  I  was 
really  afraid  to  ask.' " 

Their  fourth  child  was  a  daughter.  Mary  Jane 
was  born  in  Clarke  County,  Kentucky,  November  16, 
1803,  and  when  twelve  years  of  age,  at  the  same  time 
and  place  with  her  brother  Leroy,  embraced  religion. 
A  considerable  portion  of  her  girlhood  was  spent  with 
her  aunt,  the  wife  of  Rev.  Leroy  Cole,  where  her  educa- 
tional advantages  were  superior  to  those  generally  en- 
joyed at  that  period.  From  the  time  of  her  conver- 
sion she  exhibited  in  her  godly  walk  the  doctrines  of 
the  Gospel  she  professed,  and  zealously  labored  for  the 
salvation  of  her  associates.  She  was  instrumental  in 
influencing  many  young  people  to  Christ,  among  them 
her  brother  Benjamin,  whom  she  led  by  the  hand  to 
the  altar  at  a  camp-meeting  held  at  Ebenezer,  where 
he  was  converted.  April  18,  1822,  she  became  the 
wife  of  John  Challen,  of  Lexington,  a  young  man  of 
excellent  family,  who  although  irreligious  at  the  time 
of  their  marriage,  yet  very  soon  afterward,  through 
her  instrumentality,  was  brought  to  Christ. 

At  the  camp-meetings  of  that  period  in  the  exer- 
cises of  the  altar  she  was  remarkably  active,  instruct- 
ing the  penitent  in  the  way  of  life  and  salvation.  Dif- 
fident and  modest,  yet  such  was  her  consistent  Christian 
life  and  burning  zeal  for  Christ  that  she  never  lost  an 
opportunity  to  persuade  a  sinner  to  seek  him ;  and 
such  were  the  radiance  and  sunshine  upon  her  face 
when  under  any  religious  excitement  that  she  looked 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  55 

as  though  she  belonged  to  another  and  a  happier 
sphere. 

The  camp-meetings  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Church 
and  commonwealth  were  occasions  of  great  interest  and 
of  great  religious  awakening.  Retiring  as  she  was,  yet 
in  the  private  circles  assembled  in  the  tents  she  would 
talk  to  those  around  her  in  strains  of  pathos  and  power 
that  strong  men  would  draw  near  and  look  upon  her 
sunlit  face,  and  catch  the  words  of  meekness,  wisdom, 
and  truth  that  flowed  from  her  lips. 

At  a  camp-meeting  held  near  Millersburg  in  1826, 
Mr.  Samuel  Rankin,  a  gentleman  of  culture,  took  a 
seat  near  her, -while  she  was  talking  on  the  subject  of 
religion,  "  desirous  to  learn  whether  there  was  any 
truth  in  the  religion  of  Christ,  which  he  had  not  be- 
lieved," became  deeply  affected.  A  gentleman  present 
watched  him  closely.  "  He  grew  pale  as  he  listened, 
and  tears  unconsciously  flowed  down  his  face,"  and  as 
she  talked  of  the  love  of  Jesus  "  he  was  overcome," 
and  retiring  declared  that  "  nothing  less  than  the  spirit 
and  power  of  God  could  inspire  such  heavenly  elo- 
quence." He  resolved  upon  a  better  life. 

In  1830  her  husband  removed  to  Illinois  and  set- 
tled in  Waverly,  where  several  of  their  children  yet 
live.  Some  trouble  between  him  and  a  member  of  the 
Church  resulted  in  his  withdrawal  from  the  commu- 
nion; after  which  he  entered  the  Campbellite  Church, 
and  became  a  preacher  in  that  denomination. 

On  one  occasion,  after  her  husband  had  preached, 
quite  a  number  of  the  members  of  his  Church,  together 
with  one  of  the  preachers,  accompanied  him  home,  and 
•were  extravagant  in  their  laudations  of  the  sermon, 


56  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  congratulated  Mrs.  Challen  on  being  the  wife  of 
such  a  light  in  the  Church. 

She  calmly  replied,  "  Yes,  I  suppose  that  Mr. 
Challen  shines  very  brightly  in  your  dark  room,  but 
when  his  light  was  much  brighter  than  now,  among' 
other  bright  lights  with  which  he  was  associated,  his 
taper  did  not  excel.  The  difference  is,  the  shadow 
under  which  it  is  now  exhibited.  I  have  no  doubt  it 
shines  very  brightly  among  you." 

At  a  later  period,  for  the  peace  and  harmony  of 
her  family,  she  made  the  sacrifice  of  her  preferences, 
and  joined  the  Church  with  her  husband,  her  views  of 
evangelical  godliness  remaining  unchanged.  She  died 
April  18,  1863,  after  having  been  a  widow  several 
years. 

Benjamin  Taylor  Kavanaugh,  the  fourth  son  and 
fifth  child,  was  born  in  Jefferson  County,  near  Louis- 
ville, April  23,  1805.  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  had  often 
expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was  wrong  to  raise  sons 
to  manhood  without  giving  them  some  trade  or 
avocation  by  which  they  might  make  an  independent 
living. 

She  adhered  to  this  policy  in  reference  to  the  chil- 
dren that  had  been  intrusted  to  her  care.  When  in 
the  tenth  year  of  his  age  Benjamin  was  apprenticed 
to  Rev.  John  Lyle  to  learn  book-binding,  where  he 
remained  two  years. 

While  living  with  Mr.  Lyle  he,  with  his  brother 
Hubbard,  joined  a  company  of  eight  boys,  who  formed 
themselves  into  a  club  that  met  once  a  week  in  the 
evening,  for  the  purpose  of  reading  the  Bible  and 
prayer.  At  the  time  of  the  formation  of  this  society 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  57 

of  boys  neither  of  them  had  joined  any  Church,  yet 
each  grew  up  to  manhood  with  well  formed  religious 
characters,  and  members  of  some  evangelical  branch 
of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

Mr.  Lyle  having  suspended  his  book-bindery  in 
1817,  Benjamin  was  transferred  to  Lexington,  and 
apprenticed  to  the  same  business  under  Stephen  P. 
Norton. 

Unwilling  to  remain  with  his  new  employer  for 
reasons  which  he  deemed  satisfactory,  he  gave  him 
notice  after  a  short  service  that  he  would  leave  him, 
to  which  Mr.  Norton  consented,  on  the  condition  that 
he  would  substitute  his  place  with  another  boy.  The 
terms  were  complied  with,  and  Benjamin  returned  to 
his  mother,  she  approving  his  conduct.  He  was  ap- 
prenticed to  the  tanning  and  currying  business  with 
the  Messrs.  Barr,  to  whom  he  was  bound  for  seven 
years. 

At  a  camp-meeting,  July  24,  1819,  near  Ebenezer, 
in  Clarke  County,  near  midnight,  he  was  powerfully 
converted  to  God.  In  speaking  of  this  event,  he  says: 
"This  miracle  of  grace  was  so  vivid  and  powerful  that 
I  can  not  better  describe  it  than  with  Ezekiel  to  say, 
'The  heavens  were  opened,  and  I  saw  visions  of  God/ 
I  had  been  seeking  for  this  blessing  ever  since  I  left 
Paris  two  years  previous.  When  found,  it  was  truly 
the  pearl  of  great  price." 

After  working  at  the  tanning  and  currying  busi- 
IK--S  for  nearly  six  years  of  the  time  for  which  he  was 
bound,  he  bought  the  remaining  portion  of  the  seven 
years  at  full  price,  and  entered  into  the  tobacco  trade 
between  Louisville  and  New  Orleans,  and  plied  it  with 


58  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

great  success  for  three  years,  making  enough  to  start 
him  in  business. 

He  was  married  in  Winchester,  Kentucky,  April 
3,  1827,  to  Miss  Margaret  Lingenfelter ;  was  licensed 
to  exhort  in  1828,  and  to  preach  at  Mount  Carmel, 
Illinois,  in  September,  1829;  commissioned  as  m.is- 
sionary  for  the  American  Sunday-school  Union  for 
Illinois  in  1830,  which  employed  his  time  for  four 
years;  in  1835  joined  the  Illinois  Conference,  and 
acted  as  agent  for  McKendree  College  for  four  years, 
realizing  for  the  college  seventy-five  thousand  dollars 
by  establishing  a  land  agency  in  its  interest;  in  1839 
was  transferred  to  the  Rock  River  Conference,  and 
appointed  superintendent  of  the  Indian  Mission  Dis- 
trict of  Sioux  and  Chippewas  at  the  head  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  where  he  remained  three  years;  in  1842 
he  was  presiding  elder  on  Plattville  District,  which  he 
served  three  years;  in  1845  he  was  appointed  agent 
for  the  American  Colonization  Society  for  the  States 
of  Indiana  and  Wisconsin,  which  position  he  held  four 
years.  While  in  this  agency  he  studied  medicine,  and 
graduated  at  Indiana  Asbury  University. 

He  located  in  1849  and  settled  in  St.  Louis,  where 
he  practiced  medicine  for  six  years  and  a  half.  Dur- 
ing this  time  the  publication  of  the  St.  Louis  Chris- 
tian Advocate  was  commenced,  and  for  five  months 
Dr.  Kavanaugh  was  its  editor.  While  he  resided  in 
St.  Louis  he  was  elected  to,  and  filled,  the  chair  of 
obstetrics  and  diseases  of  women  and  children  in  the 
medical  department  of  the  University  of  Missouri. 

In  1857  he  was  readmitted  into  the  St.  Louis  Con- 
ference, and  stationed  at  Lexington,  Missouri,  where 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  59 

he  had  a  successful  ministry  for  two  years.  In  1859 
he  was  appointed  to  Independence,  where  he  labored 
for  two  years  with  unabated  success. 

In  1861  he  was  reappointed  to  Lexington,  and  soon 
after  the  conference,  December  14th,  he  joined  the 
Southern  army  under  General  Price,  and  was  appointed 
chaplain  for  two  years ;  then  with  Enoch  M.  Marvin 
(afterwards  bishop)  he  was  appointed  missionary  for 
the  army  by  Bishop  Paine,  and  in  that  capacity  served 
to  the  close  of  the  war.  While  in  the  army  he  served 
as  surgeon  and  physician  in  field  and  hospital  as  oc- 
casion required,  and  laboring  by  the  side  of  the  gifted 
Marvin,  contributed  his  labors  to  the  revival  which 
swept  every  thing  before  it,  resulting  in  more  than 
five  hundred  conversions,  more  than  one-half  of  which 
were  of  soldiers. 

In  1865  he  was  transferred  to  the  Texas  Confer- 
ence, and  stationed  at  Chappell  Hill,  and  the  year  fol- 
lowing was  returned  and  elected  professor  of  intellectual 
and  moral  science  in  Soule  University,  his  son,  Thomas 
H.,  being  professor  of  natural  sciences  in  tjie  same  in- 
stitution. In  1867  the  yellow  fever  visited  Chappell 
Hill,  taking  off  one-fourth  of  the  population,  among 
them  his  son,  Dr.  Thomas  Hinde  Kavanaugh,  in  his 
thirty-fifth  year,  and  his  daughter,  Julia,  in  her  twenty- 
fourth,  one  dying  on  the  8th  and  the  other  on  the  9th 
of  October. 

In  1867  he  was  appointed  to  Houston,  where  he 
remained  four  years,  during  which  time  the  member- 
ship of  the  Church  in  that  city  increased  from  ninety- 
five  to  two  hundred  and  thirty-six. 

From  1871  to  1880  he  received  nominal  appoint- 


60  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

ments  in  the  vicinity  of  Houston,  as  his  family  could 
not  be  moved,  performing  missionary  work  in  desti- 
tute places,  in  which  his  labors  were  greatly  blessed. 
In  1880  he  removed  to  Hockley,  where  his  wife  died 
October  12th,  in  glorious  triumph. 

He  returned  to  Kentucky  May  11,  1881,  and  set- 
tled in  Mount  Sterling,  and  June  16th  the  same  year 
married  Mrs.  Sue  Stith  Barre,  daughter  of  Richard 
Marcus  Stith,  formerly  of  Big  Spring,  Kentucky. 

He  was  transferred  to  Kentucky  Conference,  and 
in  1881  was  appointed  to  Owingsville  Circuit,  the  first 
charge  he  filled  in  his  native  State.  In  1882  he  was 
appointed  to  Mount  Zion,  Bethel,  and  Old  Fort  Cir- 
cuit, in  Clarke  and  Montgomery  Counties,  where  he 
is  now  laboring  the  second  year. 

From  the  great  strain  upon  his  eyes  in  reading  and 
writing,  especially  while  editing  the  "  Family  Visitor" 
and  the  "  Masonic  Mirror,"  while  living  in  Houston, 
he  contracted  a  dark  shadow  upon  the  retina  of  the 
eye  that  so  obscured  his  Vision  that  he  is  unable  to 
see  either  tp  read  or  write. 

In  a  letter  from  him  dated  April  12,  1884,  he 
says:  "  But  fortunately  for  me,  in  the  good  providence 
of  God,  my  Avife  is  skilled  in  these  arts;  with  a  mind 
stored  with  knowledge  from  twenty-five  years  of  teach- 
ing, she  more  than  supplies  my  lack  of  vision,  so  that 
by  her  aid  I  have  not  only  been  able  to  accomplish  my 
Church-work,  but  at  my  dictation  she  has  written  and 
prepared  for  the  press  matter  sufficient  for  two  whole 
volumes  of  scientific  works.  First,  '  Electricity  the 
Motor  Power  of  the  Solar  System,'  published  in  serial 
form  in  Wilford's  Microcosm,  in  New  York,  last  year, 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  61 

and  a  new  work  entitled,  (  The  Great  Central  Valley 
of  North  America  Considered  with  Reference  to  its 
Geography,  Topography,  Hydrology,  and  Mineralogy, 
and  other  Prominent  Features  of  the.  Valley.'  This 
latter  work  is  taken  by  the  Smithsonian  Institute, 
and  will  be  published  under  the  auspices  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

"  In  addition  to  these  arduous  labors,  she  has  re- 
viewed and  prepared  for  the  press  a  larger  work, 
already  in  manuscript,  entitled,  '  Notes  of  a  Western 
Rambler ;  or,  The  Observation  and  Experience  of  Pi- 
oneer Life  in  the  West  for  Sixty  Years.' 

"Although  on  the  28th  of  April,  1884,  I  complete 
my  seventy-ninth  year,  I  am  not  conscious  that  I  have 
lost  either  mental  or  physical  vigor  so  far  as  ability 
to  work  is  concerned,  my  health  and  strength  remain- 
ing firm  and  vigorous.  I  still  have  plans  in  view  for 
the  future  that  may,  if  I  am  able  to  accomplish  them, 
still  contribute  in  some  degree  to  advance  the  moral 
and  religious  interests  of  the  public.  Not  the  least 
among  my  labors  is  to  assist  you,  as  I  have  been  do- 
ing, in  gathering  up  the  fragments  of  history  pertain- 
ing to  the  life  and  times  of  my  beloved  and  honored 
brother — your  life-long  friend — Bishop  Kavanaugh." 

Williams  Barbour,  the  youngest  child,  was  born 
in  Clarke  County,  Kentucky,  February  17,  1807,  a  few 
months  after  the  death  of  his  father. 

In  July,  1819,  when  twelve  years  of  age,  he  joined 
the  Methodist  Church  as  a  seeker  of  religion,  and  in 
September  following  was  happily  converted.  As  with 
her  other  sons  whom  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  had  bound  out 
to  trades,  so  in  the  case  of  her  youngest ;  she  did  not 


62  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

make  an  exception.  When  very  young  she  placet!  him 
with  the  same  gentlemen  where  his  brother  Benjamin 
was  apprenticed  to  learn  the  tanning  and  currying 
business. 

In  1831,  on  the  16th  of  November,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Susan  Ann  Evans,  of  Clarke  County,  and 
in  1837  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference, and  appointed  to  Jefferson  Circuit.  After  re- 
maining in  Kentucky  three  years  he  was  transferred 
to  the  Rock  River  Conference,  and  appointed  mis- 
sionary to  the  Sioux  Indians.  He  returned  to  Ken- 
tucky in  1843,  and  traveled  until  1849,  when  he  located. 
In  1856  he  was  readmitted,  and  continued  a  member 
of  this  conference  until  1876,  spending  six  years  of 
the  time  in  charge  of  districts,  presiding  over  the 
Covington  District  four  years,  and  the  Maysville  two 
years. 

In  1876  he  was  transferred  to  Los  Angeles  Con- 
ference, and  was  appointed  to  the  Los  Angeles  Dis- 
trict, where  he  remained  four  years.  He  was  then 
appointed  to  the  San  Luis  Obispo  District,  but  fam- 
ily affliction  induced  his  return  to  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence, where  he  is  now  (1884)  traveling  Lawrenceburg 
Circuit. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  63 


II. 

FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  HUBBARD  HINDE  KAVANAUGH 
TO  HIS  ADMISSION  INTO  THE  'KEN- 
TUCKY CONFERENCE. 

TJUBBARD  HIXDE  KAVANAUGH  was  the 
.L-L  third  son  of  Williams  and  Hannah  Hubbard 
Kavanaugh.  He  was  born  in  Clarke  County,  Ken- 
tucky, January  14,  1802,  and  was  named  for  his 
great-grandfather  Hubbard  and  for  his  grandfather 
Hinde.  Left  an  orphan  by  the  death  of  his  father 
when  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  age,  the  responsibility 
of  his  early  training  devolved  exclusively  on  his 
widowed  mother,  to  whom,  in  all  things,  he  was  obe- 
dient, her  law  being  the  rule  of  his  early  life.  In 
his  declining  years  he  was  often  heard  to  say,  that  in 
all  his  life  he  had  never  disobeyed  his  mother  nor 
been  unmindful  of  her  wishes.  His  childhood  had 
nothing  about  it  peculiar,  only  that  he  was  distin- 
guished for  sterling  integrity  and  invincible  courage. 
Anxious  to  place  within  the  reach  of  her  son  the 
means  of  support,  and  desirous  to  protect  his  morals, 
when  thirteen  years  of  age  she  bound  him  as  an  ap- 
prentice to  the  Rev.  John  Lyle,  of  Paris,  Kentucky, 
to  learn  the  art  of  printing.  Mr.  Lyle  was  a  pious 
and  able  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
steady  and  industrious  habits,  together  with  his 
probity  of  character,  so  impressed  the  mind  of  the 
preacher  that  young  Kavanaugh  at  once  won  a  warm 


64  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

place  in  his  affections  and  a  high  place  in  his  confi- 
dence. His  educational  advantages  had  been  quite 
meager,  but  in  his  new  position  he  availed  himself 
of  every  opportunity  to  improve  his  mind  and  store 
it  with  useful  knowledge. 

Such,  indeed,  was  the  interest  taken  in  the  ap- 
prentice by  his  employer,  that  he  often  took  him  with 
him  to  his  Sunday  appointments,  giving  him  the  ad- 
vantage of  his  conversation,  his  companionship,  .and 
his  sermons. 

The  pious  instructions  of  Mr.  Lyle,  added  to  the 
advice  and  prayers  and  godly  life  of  his  Christian 
mother,  could  scarcely  fail  to  impress  the  young  heart 
of  her  son.  He  gave  thought  to  the  subject  of  relig- 
ion, until  he  became  powerfully  awakened,  and  on 
the  3d  of  November,  1817,  while  traveling  with  Mr. 
Lyle,  he  was  happily  converted  to  God.  His  con- 
version was  clear  and  powerful,  leaving  no  doubt  in 
his  mind  as  to  his  acceptance  with  God.  He  was 
happy,  inexpressibly  happy,  and  shouted  aloud  the 
praises  of  Him  who  had  taken  "his  feet  from  the 
miry  clay  and  the  horrible  pit  and  set  them  upon 
the  Rock."  In  speaking  of  his  conversion  we  have 
often  heard  him  say,  "I  could  not  be  a  bigot;  for 
my  father  was  a  Protestant  Episcopal  clergyman,  my 
mother  a  Methodist,  I  was  awakened  under  a  ser- 
mon preached  by  a  Baptist  preacher,  and  converted 
while  traveling  with  a  Presbyterian  preacher.  So  I 
owe  something  to  all  the  Churches,  and  could  not  be 
a  bigot,  if  I  were  to  try." 

Having  made  a  profession  of  religion,  we  are  not 
surprised  that  it  was  the  wish  of  Mr.  Lyle  that  Mr. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  65 

Kavanaugh  should  join  the  Presbyterian  Church  and 
enter  the  ministry.  He  saw  in  the  young  man  the 
buddings  of  promise  that  indicated  great  usefulness 
in  the  future;  nor  are  we  astonished  at  the  prompt 
refusal  of  the  generous  proffer  of  a  classical  educa- 
Jion,  on  the  condition  that  he  would  enter  that  com- 
munion. Here  the  mother  was  felt,  who  had  said, 
"  I  want  him  first  a  Christian,  and  second  a  Method- 
ist, and  to  me  they  mean  the  same  thing.  If  God  has 
called  Hubbard  to  preach  he  has  called  him  to  preach 
a  free  salvation."  With  Mr.  Lyle  he  had  frequent 
conversations  on  the  questions  of  Predestination  and 
Free  Grace,  the  last  one  of  which  occurred  one  even- 
ing in  Mr.  Lyle's  parlor.  After  spending  more  than 
two  hours,  if  not  convinced  himself  of  the  error  of 
Calvinism,  he  was  satisfied  that  his  pupil  believed  Ar- 
minianism  to  be  true.  He  said  to  him,  "  "Well,  Hub- 
bard,  we  will  have  to  agree  to  disagree.  You  are 
certainly  the  best  posted  young  man  I  have  ever 
known."  His  excellent  mother  had  adhered  to  the 
struggling  fortunes  of  Methodism  in  the  infancy  of 
the  Church,  and  when  her  husband  had  entered  an- 
other communion,  she  still  regarded  it  "  the  more 
excellent  way."  The  rehearsal  to  her  children  of  the 
difficulties  that  confronted  her  in  her  early  religious 
life,  the  opposition  with  which  she  met  in  becoming 
a  Methodist,  her  unfaltering  devotion  to  the  Church, 
and  the  sacrifices  made  by  the  itinerant  preachers  to 
extend  the  borders  of  Zion,  had  not  failed  to  impress 
their  hearts.  Mr.  Kavanaugh  would  have  yielded 
any  thing  but  principle  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a 
liberal  education;  but  that  he  could  not  surrender. 

6 


66  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

He  believed  the  doctrines  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  to  be  consonant  with  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible,  and  the  itinerant  system  of  preaching  the 
Gospel  as  the  best  adapte'd  to  carry  out  the  great 
commission,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature  •"  and  if  he  preached 
he  would  preach  nothing  less  than  a  salvation  pro- 
vided for  all  mankind,  through  the  sufferings,  death, 
and  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ. 

In  the  month  of  January  succeeding  his  conver- 
sion Mr.  Kavanaugh  joined  the  Methodist  Church 
under  the  ministry  of  Benjamin  Lakin.  Fully  con- 
vinced that  God  had  called  him  to  the  Avork  of  the 
Christian  ministry,  he  was  anxious  to  avail  himself 
of  every  advantage  within  his  reach  to  prepare  for 
the  responsible  position.  The  kindness  of  Mr.  Lyle 
to  him  was  unabated.  His  apprenticeship  was  to 
continue  for  seven  years  from  the  time  he  had  entered 
upon  it ;  but  when  five  years  had  passed  his  generous 
friend  released  him  from  all  obligation  to  remain. 
A  severe  trial,  however,  soon  awaited  him.  On  leav- 
ing Paris  he  returned  to  his  mother's,  who  still  resided 
in  Clarke  County,  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  his 
studies.  A  severe  affection  of  his  eyes,  which  lasted 
for  several  years,  compelled  him  to  surrender  his 
course  of  study  just  at  a  time  when  he  deemed  it 
essential  to  his  success  to  apply  himself  unremittingly 
to  his  books. 

In  1822,  early  in  September,  before  he  had  reached 
his  majority,  he  was  recommended  by  the  quarterly 
conference  of  the  Mount  Sterling  Circuit,  held  at  the 
Grassy  Lick  Church,  in  Montgomery  County,  to  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  67 

District  Conference  held  at  Pleasant  Green,  in  Bour- 
bon County,  as  a  suitable  person  to  be  licensed  to 
preach  the  Gospel.  The  District  Conference  granted 
him  authority  to  exercise  his  gifts  as  a  preacher. 
His  license  was  signed  by  Marcus  Lindsey.  A  short 
time  afterward  he  removed  to  Augusta,  where  he  was 
employed  by  James  Armstrong  to  edit  and  publish 
the  Western  Watchman,  a  paper  remarkably  spicy  and 
popular  under  his  editorial  management.  John  P. 
Finley,  at  that  time  was  residing  in  Augusta,  and  was 
the  president  of  Augusta  College.  He  was  not  only 
in  private  life,  but  also  in  the  pulpit,  remarkably 
popular.  While  Mr.  Finley  preached  frequently  in 
the  town,  Mr.  Kavanaugh  confined  his  ministry  to 
the  country.  Rumors  of  his  success  reached  the  vil- 
lage, but  the  members  of  the  Church  regarded  all 
they  heard  as  an  exaggeration,  and  declined  to  have 
him  invited  to  preach  in  town.  Mr.  Finley,  however, 
heard  him,  and  was  equally  laudatory  with  his  country 
parishioners.  Unwilling  to  risk  too  much,  a  plan 
was  arranged  of  which  Mr.  Kavanaugh  had  no  knowl- 
edge, by  which  he  might  preach  a  trial  sermon,  and 
if  thought  advisable  afterward,  he  might  be  invited 
into  the  pulpit.  James  Armstrong  was  devoted  to 
the  Methodist  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  pious  and 
influential  member.  In  the  rear  of  his  store  he  had 
a  private  room,  and  to  this  retired  place  he  invited 
several  members  of  the  Church,  among  them  the 
young  preacher,  and  solicited  him  to  preach,  to  which 
he  consented  with  reluctance.  His  text  was  Prov. 
viii,  6:  "Hear;  for  I  will  speak  of  excellent  things; 
and  the  opening  of  my  lips  shall  be  right  things." 


68  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Not  aware  that  he  was  preaching  a  trial  sermon,  and 
being,  as  he  supposed,  among  friends,  he  threw  off  all 
restraint,  and  delivered  his  message  with  great  lib- 
erty. The  effect  of  the  sermon  was  powerful  and 
overwhelming.  On  the  following  day  he  was  met  by 
Mrs.  Armstrong,  the  mother  of  the  gentleman  who 
had  invited  him  to  preach,  a  lady  of  ardent  piety, 
who,  in  her  own  Irish  brogue,  said  to  him,  *  Och, 
man !  sure,  and  we  kape  no  Jonah  here."  From  this 
time  the  pulpit  in  Augusta  was  always  open  to  him. 
On  the  24th  of  September,  1823,  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  met  in  the 
city  of  Maysville.  Bishops  George  and  Roberts  were 
both  in  attendance,  and  presided  alternately. 

Just  forty  years  before,  Francis  Clarke,  a  local 
preacher,  who  had  emigrated  from  Virginia  and  set- 
tled in  Mercer  County,  had  organized  the  first  class 
of  Methodists  in  Kentucky ;  while  in  1786  James 
Haw  and  Benjamin  Ogden,  the  first  itinerant  preach- 
ers, had  entered  the  district. 

During  these  forty  years  the  Church  had  grown 
from  a  small  class  to  a  membership  of  twenty-one 
thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-two,  of  which  eight- 
een thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty-five  were 
whites,  and  two  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  colored,  carrying  its  influence  into  every  town 
and  every  community  in  the  commonwealth. 

Instead  of  a  solitary  circuit  and  two  traveling 
preachers,  at  the  close  of  forty  years  we  find  six 
presiding  elders'  districts,  with  forty-three  separate 
charges  occupied  by  seventy-four  preachers,  in  addi- 
tion to  which  the  Kanawha  District,  lying  in  Western 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  69 

Virginia,  with  seven  charges  and  twelve  preachers, 
were  included  in  the  Kentucky  Conference. 

No  conference  in  the  connection  at  this  period 
was  blessed  with  a  ministry  of  a  higher  order  of  tal- 
ents than  the  Kentucky.  Indeed,  such  a  constellation 
of  names  has  but  seldom  appeared  in  any  of  the  walks 
of  life. 

Thomas  A.  Morris,  Peter  Akers,  Marcus  Lindsay, 
Andrew  Monroe,  William  Adams,  Charles  Holliday, 
Peter  Cartwright,  George  "W.  Taylor,  John  Brown, 
George  C.  Light,  John  Ray,  Benjamin  T.  Crouch, 
John  Johnson,  Edward  Stevenson,  Jonathan  Stamper, 
and  Benjamin  Lakin  are  names  that  will  never  die. 

The  communities  favored  with  the  ministry  of  these 
men  were  blessed  indeed.  They  have  all  crossed  over 
the  last  river  and  entered  upon  eternal  life,  but  their 
impress  left  upon  the  Church  and  upon  the  people  of 
Kentucky  will  never  be  effaced. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  had  a  great  affection  for  Benja- 
min Lakin,  who  had  taken  him  into  the  Church.  He 
was  born  in  Montgomery  County,  Maryland,  August 
23,  1767.  The  family  from  which  he  descended  were 
originally  from  England.  Left  an  orphan  at  nine 
years  of  age  by  the  death  of  his  father,  his  moral  and 
religious  training  was  confided  to  the  care  of  his  only 
surviving  parent.  Soon  after  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band Mrs.  Lakin  removed  with  her  family  to  Penn- 
sylvania, and  settled  near  the  Redstone  Fort,  in  a 
region  of  country  greatly  infested  by  the  Indians. 
About  the  year  1793  she  emigrated  with  her  family 
to  Kentucky,  and  settled  on  Bracken  Creek,  within 
or  near  the  limits  of  Mason  County. 


70  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Under  the  preaching  of  the  Rev.  Richard  What- 
coat,  in  1791,  and  before  the  removal  of  the  family 
to  the  West,  during  a  season  of  religious  interest,  Mr. 
Lakin  was  awakened  and  converted  to  God.*  Feel- 
ing divinely  called  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  he 
became  an  itinerant  preacher  on  the  Hinkstone  Cir- 
cuit in  1794,  under  the  direction  of  Francis  Poythress, 
the  presiding  elder.  In  1795  he  joined  the  confer- 
ence, and  was  appointed  to  the  Green  Circuit,  in  East 
Tennessee.  In  1796  he  returned  to  Kentucky,  and 
traveled  on  the  Danville,  and  in  1797  on  the  Lexing- 
ton Circuit. 

During  this  year  he  married,  and,  finding  it  im- 
possible to  support  his  family  in  the  itinerancy,  he 
located  at  the  close  of  the  year.  "Such  was  the  preju- 
dice that  existed  in  the  Church,  at  that  day,  against 
married  preachers,  that  it  was  almost  out  of  the  ques- 
tion for  any  man  to  continue  in  the  work  if  he  had 
a  wife."  f 

He  continued  in  a  local  sphere  for  only  a  few  years, 
when,  in  1801,  he  was  readmitted  into  the  conference, 
and  appointed  to  the  Limestone  Circuit.  The  two  fol- 
lowing years  the  field  of  his  ministerial  labor  was  on 
the  Scioto  and  Miami  Circuit,  including  all  of  South- 
ern Ohio.  In  1803  he  was  returned  to  Kentucky, 
where  he  remained  for  three  years,  and  traveled  suc- 
cessively the  Salt  River,  Danville,  and  Shelby  Cir- 
cuits. In  1806  and  1807  he  was  again  appointed  to 
the  Miami  Circuit,  and  then  traveled  successively  on 
the  Deer  Creek,  Hockhocking,  Cincinnati,  White  Oak, 

*Sprague's  "Annals  of  American  Methodist  Pulpit,"  p.  268. 
t  Finley's  "  Sketches  of  Western  Methodism,"  p.  180. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  71 

and  Union  Circuits — all  lying  beyond  the  Ohio  River. 
In  1814  he  again  returned  to  Kentucky,  where  he 
preached  and  labored  as  long  as  he  was  able  to  be 
effective.  His  last  appointment  was  to  the  Hinkstone 
Circuit,  where  he  continued  for  two  years.* 

At  the  conference  of  1818  he  was  placed  on  the 
list  of  supernumerary  preachers;  but  the  following 
year  on  the  superannuated  roll,  which  relation  he  sus- 
tained until  his  death. 

For  a  few  years  after  the  failure  of  his  health,  he 
remained  in  Kentucky ;  but  at  a  later  period  he  re- 
moved to  Ohio,  and  settled  in  Clermont  County,  near 
Felicity.  Although  unable  to  perform  the  work  of 
an  efficient  preacher  in  the  position  he  occupied,  he 
never  spent  an  idle  Sabbath  when  it  could  be  pre- 
vented. Having  regular  appointments  at  accessible 
points,  when  no  longer  able  to  perform  the  arduous 
labors  that  had  characterized  him  in  the  strength  of 
his  manhood,  even  down  to  the  grave,  he  determined 
to  "make  full  proof  of  his  ministry"  by  contributing 
his  wasting  life  to  the  proclamation  of  the  truths  of 
the  Gospel.  In  the  morning  of  his  life  "he  was  one 
of  those  ministers  who  stood  side  by  side,  and  guided 
the  Church  through  that  most  remarkable  revival  of 
religion  that  swept  like  a  tornado  over  the  Western 
world.  In  the  greatest  excitement  the  clear  and  pen- 
etrating voice  of  Lakin  might  be  heard  amid  the  din 
and  roar  of  the  Lord's  battle,  directing  the  wounded 
to  the  Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.  Day  and  night  he  was  upon  the  watch-tower; 

*  Mr.  Lakin  received  into  \}\c.  Church,  among  others,  the 
l!cv.  John  P.  Durbin,  I).  I).,  :m<l  Bishop  K;iv;m;uigh. 


72  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  in  the  class  and  praying  circles  his  place  was 
never  empty — leading  the  blind  by  the  right  way, 
carrying  the  lambs  in  his  bosom,  urging  on  the  lag- 
gard professor,  and  warning  sinners,  in  tones  of 
thunder,  to  '  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come/  "  *  From 
the  time  he  joined  the  itinerant  ranks  until  his  name 
disappears  from  the  effective  roll  "  he  was  abundant 
in  labors,  and  never  hesitated  to  tax  a  robust  consti- 
tution to  the  extent  of  its  ability ."f  In  those  relig- 
ious controversies  in  Kentucky,  which,  in  early  times, 
not  only  disturbed  the  peace,  but  threatened  for  awhile 
the  very  existence  of  the  Church,  he  stood  amongst 
the  foremost  in  vindication  of  the  truth,  repelling  with 
gigantic  power  the  attacks  of  all  opponents.  Always 
fluent  in  speech,  and  often  truly  eloquent — not  only 
a  bold,  but  an  able  defender  of  the  Church ;  sacrific- 
ing the  pleasures  of  home  to  bear  the  tidings  of  a 
Savior's  love — Benjamin  Lakin  held  as  warm  a  place 
in  the  affections  of  the  Methodists  of  Kentucky  of 
the  past  generation  as  did  any  one  of  the  noble  men 
who  were  his  associates  in  labor. 

On  the  28th  of  January,  1849,  he  preached  his 
last  sermon  to  a  congregation  in  McKendree  Chapel, 
Brown  County,  Ohio.  He  returned  to  his  home  at 
Point  Pleasant  on  the  following  Tuesday,  complain- 
ing of  indisposition.  He,  however,  started  on  the 
succeeding  Friday,  on  horseback,  to  a  quarterly-meet- 
ing at  Felicity,  Ohio.  He  rode  about  six  miles,  when 
he  reached  the  house  of  his  niece,  Mrs.  Richards,  in 
usual  health,  and  enjoying  a  very  happy  frame  of 

*  "  Sketches  of  Western  Methodism,"  p.  183. 

tRev.  Jonathan  Stamper,  in  Home  Circle,  vol.  iii,  p.  211. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  73 

mind.*  "About  12  o'clock  that  night  he  was  at- 
tacked with  a  chill  and  nausea.  On  Saturday  and 
Sabbath  he  continued  quite  unwell.  On  Monday  he 
was  much  better;  and,  after  eating  his  supper  in  the 
evening,  he  sat  some  time  by  the  fire,  and  conversed 
sweetly  with  the  family.  At  about  7  o'clock  he  arose, 
looked  at  his  watch,  and  walked  out  of  the  room  to- 
ward the  front  door.  A  noise  being  heard  in  the 
entry,  the  family  followed,  and  found  he  had  fallen 
to  the  floor.  The  first  supposition  was  that  he  had 
fainted,  and  they  made  an  effort  to  revive  him ;  but 
it  was  the  paralyzing  touch  of  death — his  spirit  had 
fled."f 

At  this  session  of  the  conference  thirteen  young 
men  were  admitted  on  trial.  Their  names  were,  Will- 
iam MeCommns,  Daniel  H.  Tevis,  Richard  I.  Dungan, 
Nelson  Dills,  Tiumip.J.Holliman,  David  Wright,  Dan- 
iel Black,  Clement  Clifton,  Newton  G.  Berry  man, 
John  S.  Barger,  George  Richardson,  Abram  Long, 
and  HUBBARD  HIXDE  KAVANAUGH. 

Daniel  H.  Tevis  had  entered  the  conference  in 
1821,  and  was  appointed  to  the  Little  Sandy  Circuit, 
in  the  Kanawha  District.  Finding  his  strength  un- 
equal to  the  toils  and  sacrifices  of  an  itinerant  preach- 
er's life,  at  the  close  of  the  year  he  retired  from  the 
field. 

A  year's  rest  had  partially  restored  his  health,  and 
at  the  conference  of  1823  he  again  applied  for  admis- 
sion and  was  received.  His  field  of  labor  was  the 


•"Sketches  of  Western  Methodism,"  pp.  183,  184. 

t General  Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  vol. 
iv,  p.  385. 


74  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

Hinkstone  Circuit,  as  the  colleague  of  John  Ray.  With 
uncompromising  zeal  he  entered  upon  his  work,  only 
to  discover  that  he  could  not  become  an  effective  trav- 
eling preacher.  Once  more  his  physical  powers  were 
compelled  to  yield,  and,  although  anxious  to  prosecute 
the  duties  of  an  itinerant  he  soon  found  himself  unable 
to  remain  in  the  ranks.  At  the  ensuing  conference  he 
was  discontinued  at  his  own  request. 

William  McCommas  was  the  next  to  retire.  He 
traveled  only  three  years.  His  fields  of  labor  were 
the  Big  Kanawha  and  the  Little  Sandy  Circuits, 
preaching  in  the  latter  two  years. 

Nelson  Dills,  after  traveling  the  Shelby,  the  Madi- 
son, and  Franklin  Circuits,  died  on  the  23d  of  March, 
1827.  He  was  born  in  Harrison  County,  Kentucky, 
in  1796.  His  parents,  David  Dills  and  his  wife,  were 
members  of  the  Methodist  Church  and  deeply  pious. 
They  were  of  German  descent,  and  were  brought  up 
in  Pennsylvania,  but  came  to  Kentucky  at  an  early 
day  and  settled  in  Harrison  County.  In  the  Autumn 
of  1816,  at  a  camp-meeting  held  at  White's  Camp- 
ground, near  Cynthiana,  to  which  Mr.  Dills  had  gone 
for  sport,  he  was  awakened  to  a  sense  of  his  condition 
as  a  sinner  and  happily  converted  to  God,  joining  the 
Church  at  the  same  time.  Believing  that  he  was  di- 
vinely called  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  previous 
to  his  entrance  upon  the  ministry,  he  was  remarkably 
zealous  and  useful.  He  appointed  prayer-meetings 
whenever  convenient,  and  excelled  in  the  class-room  as 
a  leader.  In  exhortation  he  had  but  few  equals,  and 
as  a  singer  he  had  scarcely  a  peer  among  his  brethren. 

In  entering  the  ministry  he  exhibited  in  the  pros- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUOH.  75 

edition  of  his  work  a  zeal  worthy  the  apostolic  age  of 
the  Church.  He  was  not,  however,  permitted  to  con- 
tinue long  in  the  field.  His  career  was  brief,  though 
brilliant.  It  was  his  privilege  to  terminate  his  labors 
in  the  same  charge  in  which  he  had  commenced  his 
work  as  an  itinerant.  On  the  Franklin  Circuit  he  had 
won  his  earliest  trophies,  and  on  that  same  field  he 
gathered  his  latest  laurels.  In  the  several  charges  he 
filled  a  succession  of  revivals  crowned  his  ministry, 
and  hundreds  were  converted  and  added  to  the  Church. 
His  last  moments  were  peaceful  and  happy. 

Daniel  Black  died  the  same  year,  after  traveling 
the  Henderson,  Cumberland,  Logan,  and  Barren  Cir- 
cuits. In  the  ministry  he  was  useful,  in  his  life  exem- 
plary, in  afflictions  patient,  and  in  death  triumphant. 
He  was  born  in  South  Carolina,  November  27,  1795; 
embraced  religion  July  24,  1821 ;  and  was  licensed  to 
preach  August  18,  1823.  He  left  to  the  Kentucky 
Conference  a  small  legacy  to  be  equally  divided  among 
the  members. 

Thompson  J.  Holliman  traveled  the  Breckinridge, 
Red  River,  and  Somerset  Circuits.  These  fields  of 
labor  were  large,  and  the  work  to  be  performed  more 
than  equal  to  the  strength  of  Mr.  Holliman.  Unable 
longer  to  bear  the  fatigue  of  the  campaign  in  1.826  he 
was  placed  on  the  list  of  superannuates,  where  he 
remained  until  his  death,  which  occurred  previous  to 
the  session  of  the  conference  in  1828.  During  his 
ministry  he  accomplished  much  good,  and  died  peace- 
ful and  happy. 

David  Wright  traveled  the  Dover,  Hartford,  Bacon 


76  LIFE   AND   TIMES  OF 

Creek,  John's  Creek,  Barren,  and  Bowling  Green  Cir- 
cuits. He  located  in  1829. 

Clement  L.  Clifton  employed  the  first  year  of  his 
ministry  on  the  Green  River  Circuit,  where  he  was 
very  successful  in  the  accomplishment  of  good.  He 
subsequently  traveled  the  Somerset,  Livingston  (two 
years),  Henderson  (two  years),  and  the  Christian  Cir- 
cuit. Worn  down  by  the  arduous  labors  to  which  he 
had  been  subjected,  in  1832  he  sought  repose  in  a 
superannuated  relation,  in  which  he  remained  until 
1835,  when  he  asked  and  received  a  location.  He  was 
well  spoken  of  wherever  he  labored,  and  was  remark- 
alSly  useful. 

The  name  of  Richard  I.  Dungan  is  familiar  to  the 
Church  in  Kentucky.  Of  his  early  life  we  have  no 
record.  When  a  youth  he  was  apprenticed  to  the 
tanning  business,  and  during  the  period  of  his  appren- 
ticeship was  converted  to  God.  His  first  appointment 
was  to  the  John's  Creek  Circuit,  where  he  traveled  one 
year,  and  was  then  transferred  to  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence. After  spending  two  years  in  Missouri  he  returned 
to  Kentucky,  where  he  continued  to  travel  and  preach 
until  the  Autumn  of  1835,  when,  "from  feeble  health 
and  family  circumstances,"  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  locate. 
In  1839  he  re-entered  the  itinerant  ranks,  where  he 
labored  faithfully  until  the  Fall  of  1846,  when  he 
again  located.  In  1855  his  name  again  appears  on  the 
conference  roll,  but  his  career  was  destined  to  be 
brief.  He  was  only  coming  home  to  die  "with  har- 
ness on."  He  Avas  appointed  to  the  Newcastle  Circuit, 
where,  on  the  1st  day  of  December,  he  was  taken  ill, 
and  died  on  the  9th  of  February,  1856. 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  77 

The  talents  of  Mr.  Dungan  were  not  of  a  brilliant 
character,  yet  he  was  eminently  useful  as  a  preacher 
of  the  Gospel.  In  his  preaching  there  was  an  ear- 
nestness and  a  pathos  that  sent  the  truths  he  delivered 
home  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  and  led  them  to 
Christ.  His  death  was  calm  and  serene.  Often  tri- 
umphant during  his  last  illness,  he  quietly  passed  away 
as  sinks  the  sun  to  its  evening  rest. 

George  Richardson  was  born  in  Cumberland  County, 
Kentucky,  April  30,  1804.  When  fifteen  years  of  age 
he  was  happily  converted  and  joined  the  Methodist 
Church. 

Previous  to  his  admission  on  trial  into  the  confer- 
ence he  traveled  the  Cumberland  mission  for  several 
months  under  the  supervision  of  Peter  Cartwright  as 
presiding  elder. 

In  this  wide  and  unpromising  field  he  had  been 
assailed  by  a  band  of  ruffians,  who.  had  resolved  that 
the  standard  of  the  Cross  should  not  be  planted  amid 
their  mountain  homes.  They  but  little  understood  the 
spirit  of  the  preacher,  or  the  unflinching  nerve  that 
he  possessed.  Attacking  him,  they  tried  to  drive  him 
from  the  field,  as  they  had  done  his  predecessor,  when 
\\ith  stalwart  arm  he  vindicated  his  right  to  remain 
by  proving  himself  master  of  the  situation.  A  second 
:it tempt,  in  another  portion  of  the  mission,  resulted 
somewhat  differently.  They  consented  to  allow  him 
to  preach,  but  notified  him  that  they  would  whip  him 
at  the  close  of  the  sermon.  Five  men  had  engaged 
to  perform  this  difficult  task.  With  the  Bible  and 
Hymn-book  in  his  hand,  he  stood  in  the  door  of  an 
humble  cabin  and  delivered  his  message  to  the  assem- 


78  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

bled  crowd.  Firsi  a  stillness,  like  the  hush  of  death, 
came  over  the  assembly ;  but  as  he  proceeded — now 
presenting  the  terrors  of  the  law,  and  then  the  melt- 
ing scenes  of  the  Cross,  inviting  them  to  flee  the  wrath 
to  come — cries  for  mercy  fell  from  smitten  hearts  and 
rent  the  air  of  heaven.  The  sermon  closed,  and  yet 
the  preacher  pleaded  his  Master's  cause.  On  his  knees 
he  passed  through  the  house  and  yard,  exhorting  sin- 
ners to  turn  to  God.  When  the  services  closed  the 
stars  were  shining  in  the  heavens,  and  many  had  found 
peace  in  believing.  Among  those  who  we're  converted 
on  this  occasion  was  one  who  had  volunteered  to  whip 
the  preacher.  On  the  same  day  he  organized  a  Church 
in  that  community. 

In  the  Autumn  following  he  entered  the  confer- 
ence, and  after  traveling  the  Greenville,  Henderson, 
Livingston,  and  Little  River  Circuits,  he  retired  to 
the  superannuated  roll,  where  he  remained  for  three 
years. 

In  1830  he  returned  to  the  effective  ranks,  and 
was  appointed  to  the  Logan  Circuit, 'but  having  mis- 
taken his  strength,  at  the  close  of  the  year  he  was 
again  placed  on  the  list  of  superannuates,  where  he 
remained  until  1835,  when  he  located,  his  health  be- 
ing too  feeble  for  him  to  perform  the  duties  of  an 
itinerant  preacher. 

As  a  local  preacher  he  labored  to  the  full  measure 
of  his  strength,  devoting  his  talents  and  energies,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  the  accomplishment  of  good.  Thor- 
oughly versed  in  the  Scriptures,  he  was  among  the 
ablest  defenders  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  He 
was  familiar  with  the  peculiar  tenets  and  institutions 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  79 

of  his  own  denomination,  and  presented  them  with  a 
boldness  and  ability  that  silenced  opposition.  A  de- 
vout Christian,  his  life  and  deportment  gave  a  luster 
in  the  community  in  which  he  resided  to  the  religion 
he  professed.  Successful  in  winning  souls  to  Christ 
while  an  itinerant,  hundreds  were  also  converted 
through  his  ministry  in  later  years. 

His  last  illness  was  protracted  and  severe,  but  his 
sufferings  were  borne  without  a  murmur.  With  his 
pastor  and  his  family  he  conversed  freely  in  reference 
to  his  hope  beyond  the  grave.  He  called  to  his  bed- 
side his  wife  and  children,  and  addressing  them  one 
by  one,  he  requested  them  to  meet  him  in  heaven. 
He  said,  "  I  shall  soon  be  there.  I  long  to  lay  down 
this  mortal  body  that  I  may  put  on  immortality."  To 
his  wife  he  said,  "  Weep  not  for  me,  nor  think  of  me 
when  I  am  gone  as  one  reposing  in  the  cold  clay,  but 
as  a  happificd  spirit,  at  home  with  God."  He  died 
in  Logan  County,  Kentucky,  May  26,  1860,  and  was 
buried  in  the  family  grave-yard. 

Abram  Long  began  his  itinerant  career  on  the 
Christian  Circuit.  From  the  conference  of  1823  un- 
til his  death,  which  occurred  June  16,  1867,  he  re- 
ceived twenty-six  appointments.  He  was  local  one 
year,  and  seventeen  years  his  name  appears  on  the 
roll  of  superannuated  preachers.  He  was  born  in  Nel- 
son County,  Kentucky,  April  25,  1796.  Of  the  date 
of  his  conversion  we  are  not  advised.  When  he  en- 
tered the  ministry  he  was  in  the  prime  of  manhood, 
and  to  the  duties  to  which  it  called  him  none  of  his 
contemporaries  were  more  faithful  than  he.  While  his 
talents  were  not  of  a  high  order,  yet  as  a  preacher  he 


80  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

was  always  acceptable,  and  filled  with  credit  to  him- 
self and  with  blessing  to  the  Church  many  of  the 
most  important  charges  in  Kentucky.  Courteous 
in  his  manners  and  exemplary  in  his  piety,  distin- 
guished for  his  native  kindness,  and  earnest  in  his 
exhortations,  he  was  a  favorite  with  all  who  knew 
him.  The  greater  portion  of  his  ministry  was  spent 
in  the  Green  River  country,  where  he  was  instru- 
mental in  doing  much  good,  and  where  he  was  greatly 
beloved.  He  did  not  marry  until  in  his  sixty-third 
year.  He  died  of  cancer  in  the  face. 

His  sufferings  for  some  time  before  his  death  were 
very  great,  but  he  bore  them  with  the  fortitude  of  a 
Christian  hero.  When  unable  to  speak,  he  turned  to 
the  Bible  and  pointed  to  the  language,  "  All  the  days 
of  my  appointed  time  will  I  wait,  till  my  change 
come."  He  was  joyful  to  the  last.  He  wrote,  "  Not 
a  doubt  is  on  my  mind."  He  died  at  the  residence 
of  Major  Medley,  in  Christian  County,  Kentucky. 

John  S.  Barger,  who  entered  the  conference  the 
same  year  with  Mr.  Kavanaugh,  was  "a  young  man  of 
considerable  promise.  His  first  circuit  was  the  Bowl- 
ing Green.  He  subsequently  traveled  the  Logan, 
Clarke's  River,  Hopkinsville,  Jefferson,  Logan,  Henry, 
and  Limestone  Circuits. 

While  traveling  the  Logan  Circuit,  he  fell  in  love 
with  Miss  Sarah  L.  Baker,  a  young  lady  of  fervent 
piety,  and  well  calculated  for  the  position  of  a  preach- 
er's wife.  On  the  Sabbath  before  the  marriage  was 
to  take  place  Mr.  Barger  preached  in  the  neighbor- 
hood in  which  Miss  Baker  resided.  His  text  was 
Matthew  xviii,  3.  Just  as  he  announced  his  text  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  81 

young  lady  entered  the  church,  when  the  discomfited 
preacher  said,  "  My  text  is  the  eighteenth  chapter 
and  third  verse  of  Sally  Baker."  The  lady  blushed, 
the  audience  smiled,  and  the  sermon  was  remark- 
ably brief. 

During  the  eight  years  he  spent  in  Kentucky  he 
stood  abreast  with  the  most  gifted  young  men  in  the 
conference,  and  witnessed  everywhere  he  labored  the 
awakening  and  conversion  of  the  people. 

In  1831  he  was  transferred  to  the  Missouri  Con- 
ference and  stationed  in  St.  Louis.  At  the  session  of 
the  Missouri  Conference,  in  1832,  he  was  transferred 
to  the  Illinois  Conference,  where  for  nearly  fifty  years 
he  faithfully  and  successfully  preached  the  Gospel  in 
the  principal  cities  and  towns  of  the  State,  occupying 
the  most  commanding  positions,  ofttimes  a  leader  in 
the  ranks,  in  charge  of  the  most  important  districts. 
After  a  long  life  of  labor  and  toil,  and  with  his  work 
well  done,  a  few  years  ago  he  entered  upon  rest. 

Newton  G.  Berry  man  was  the  son  of  James  and 
Martha  Berrymau,  and  was  born  in  King  George 
County,  Virginia,  August  25,  1805.  His  parents 
removed  to  Kentucky,  and  settled  in  Fayctte  County, 
when  he  was  about  six  years  of  age.  lie  was  left  an 
orphan  by  the  death  of  his  father  when  only  seven 
years  old,  and  hence  the  responsibility  of  his  early 
training  devolved  entirely  on  his  mother,  who,  though 
an  excellent  lady,  was  not  then  a  professor  of  religion. 
Impressed  with  the  importance  of  saving  grace  in 
early  childhood,  yet  having  no  one  to  instruct  him, 
he  permitted  his  convictions  to  pass  away.  "When 
about  fourteen  years  of  age,  at  a  two  days'  meeting 


82  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

held  in  Scott  County,  he  made  a  profession  of  relig- 
ion and  joined  the  Church,  under  the  ministry  of 
Benjamin  Lakin.  Faithful  to  the  profession  he  had 
made,  he  became  the  honored  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  God  in  the  conversion  of  his  mother  and  other 
members  of  the  family.  Believing  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  preach  the  Gospel,  he  was  first  licensed  to  exhort, 
and  afterward  to  preach;  and  at  the  conference  en- 
suing he  was  admitted  on  trial.  His  first  appoint- 
ment was  to  the  Mount  Sterling  Circuit,  the  second 
to  the  Christian,  and  the  third  to  Fountain  Head. 
On  these  ~ several  charges  his  labors  were  blessed  in 
the  conversion  of  many  souls.  Unable  longer  to 
perform  the  labor  incident  to  the  life  of  a  traveling 
preacher,  in  the  Autumn  of  1826  he  asked  for  a  loca- 
tion. In  this  relation  to  the  Church  we  find  him 
actively  engaged  in  preaching  the  Gospel  on  every 
Sabbath  and  teaching  school  during  the  week.  Three 
yc&rs'  rest  from  circuit  life  so  restores  his  health  that 
he  re-enters  the  traveling  connection  in  the  Tennessee 
Conference,  in  1829,  and  is  appointed  to  the  Clarks- 
ville  Circuit.  The  labors  of  the  year  prostrated  him, 
and  at  the  next  conference  he  again  locates,  but  re- 
mains at  Clarksville  in  charge  of  an  academy.  In 
the  Autumn  of  1832  we  find  him  once  more  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Kentucky  Conference,  and  traveling  the 
Christian  Circuit — one  of  his  former  fields  of  labor — 
with  John  Redman  as  his  colleague.  Under  their 
united  labors  several  hundred  were  brought  to  Christ. 
From  here  we  follow  him  to  the  Bowling  Green  Sta- 
tion, where  he  remained  two  years,  and  where  about 
fifty  members  were  added  to  the  Church. 


BISHOP    KAVANAUGH.  83 

Having  decided  to  remove  to  Illinois,  he  located 
at  the  following  conference,  and  was  employed  by 
John  Sinclair,  the  presiding  elder  of  Sangamon  Dis- 
trict, Illinois  Conference,  to  fill  the  Peoria  Station, 
which  had  been  left  vacant.  Mr.  Berryman  remained 
in  Illinois  until  after  the  memorable  General  Confer- 
ence of  1844,  of  which  he  was  a  member.  On  the 
great  question  which  resulted  in  the  division  of  the. 
Church,  he  voted  with  the  Southern  delegates,  which 
rendered  his  further  connection  with  the  Illinois  Con- 
ference unpleasant.  Leaving  Illinois,  his  name  is 
enrolled  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Missouri  Conference, 
and  he  is  appointed  to  the  St.  Louis  Circuit.  He 
continued  a  member  of  this  conference  until  Septem- 
ber, 1849,  when  once  more  severe  family  affliction 
induced  him  to  retire  to  the  local  ranks.  In  1854  he 
again  enters  the  field,  travels  the  St.  Charles  District 
for  two  years,  and  then  fills  the  Glasgow  Station  the 
two  following  years.  His  next  charge  is  the  St. 
Joseph  Station,  and  then  the  St.  Joseph  District, 
which  not  only  embraced  a  large  portion  of  bleak, 
prairie  country,  but  extended  to  the  Iowa  line.  From 
this  district  he  went  to  Palmyra,  where,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  unsettled  state  of  the  country  during 
our  civil  war,  he  continued  three  years.  The  Hanni- 
bal District  was  the  last  field  he  occupied  in  Mis- 
souri, on  which  he  traveled  eighteen  months. 

In  1865  he  was  transferred  to  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference and  appointed  to  the  Lexington  District. 
After  serving  the  Lexington  District  one  year  he  was 
stationed  in  Carrollton,  to  which  he  was  returned  the 
second  year.  In  1868  he  was  sent  to  Harrodsburg, 


84  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

where  he  remained  for  two  years.  In  1870  he  was 
transferred  to  St.  Louis  Conference.  Here  lie  re- 
mained but  a  brief  period,  until  God  called  him 
home.  An  injury  received  from  a  horse  resulted  in 
his  death,  at  Glasgow,  Missouri,  December  18,  1871. 
He  was  thrice  married.  His  first  wife  was  Miss 
Slaughter,  of  Kentucky;  his  second  wife  was  Miss 
•  Loring;  his  third  wife  was  Miss  Hassinger,  of 
Missouri. 

In  the  various  charges  he  filled,  whether  on  cir- 
cuits, stations,  or  districts,  he  faithfully  performed  the 
duties  assigned  him,  enjoying  the  love  and  confidence 
of  his  brethren  in  the  ministry  and  the  Church  he  so 
earnestly  served. 

An  examination  of  the  printed  minutes  will  show 
that,  among  those  who  entered  the  conference  with 
Mr.  Kavanaugh,  no  one  was  appointed  to  a  field 
where  so  many  sacrifices  were  to  be  met,  nor  where 
the  labors  were  so  arduous. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  85 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 
OF  1823  TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1827. 

THE  first  appointment  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  to 
the  Little  Sandy  Circuit  as  the  colleague  of  Luke 
P.  Allen. 

Andrew  Monroe  was  Mr.  Kavanaugh's  first  presid- 
ing elder,  and  between  the  superintendent  of  the 
Augusta  District  and  the  junior  preacher  on  the  Little 
Sandy  Circuit  the  most  cordial  relations  existed. 
Indeed,  every  young  preacher  knows  the  strong  attach- 
ment he  formed  for  his  presiding  elder,  and  the  anx- 
iety with  which  he  looked  for  the  return  of  the 
quarterly-meeting. 

Mr.  Monroe  entered  the  Ohio  Conference  in  1815, 
and  spent  the  first  nine  years  of  his  ministry  in  Ken- 
tucky. In  1824  he  was  transferred  to  the  Missouri 
Conference,  where  he  fell  asleep  after  fifty-seven  years 
in  the  itinerant  ministry,  forty-eight  of  which  were 
spent  in  Missouri. 

At  the  Missouri  Conference  of  1872  the  Committee 
on  Memoirs  presented  the  following  report: 

"Andrew  Monroe,  as  a  prince  among  his  brethren, 
held  high  rank,  and  now,  that  he  has  gone  to  his 
cloudless  home,  his  memory  will  refresh  us  at  our 
annual  gathering.  It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this 
sketch  to  enter  into  any  exhaustive  analysis  of  a  life 


86  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

so  protracted,  aims  so  single  and  sublime,  purposes 
so  pertinaciously  adhered  to  through  a  long,  eventful 
course.  Abundant  data  exists  for  such  a  portraiture 
of  this  honored  man,  which  will  be  wrought  into  an 
enduring  form.  The  name  and  influence  of  this  good 
man  is  interwoven  into  the  warp  of  Methodism  as  it 
is  to-day  upon  the  American  continent.  His  name  is 
historic.  Scarcely  a  book  of  Methodistic  annals  has 
appeared  within  a  half  century  past  that  does  not  con- 
tain it.  He  impressed  himself  upon  two  generations. 
"Andrew  Monroe  was  born  on  Nobly  Mountain, 
in  Hampshire  County,  Virginia,  October  29,  1792. 
He  was  the  youngest  of  a  family  of  eleven  children, 
eight  sons  and  three  daughters.  Four  of  the  broth- 
ers became  Methodist  ministers.  He  was  converted 
when  a  youth,  and  joined  the  Methodist  Church  in 
Hampshire  City.  In  March,  1815,  he  was  licensed 
to  preach  by  David  Young,  presiding  elder,  and  sent 
to  labor  with  Charles  Waddell,  on  the  Fairfield  Cir- 
cuit. The  following  Autumn  he  was  admitted  on  trial 
into  the  Ohio  Conference,  and  was  sent  by  Bishop  As- 
bury  to  Cumberland  Circuit,  Kentucky."  At  the  time 
of  his  transfer  to  Missouri,  the  Missouri  Conference 
"embraced  the  States  of  Missouri,  Illinois,  Arkansas, 
and  Indiana."  After  serving  two  years  in  the  city 
of  St.  Louis  "  he  was  placed  on  the  St.  Louis  District, 
embracing  the  entire  State,  which  he  penetrated  in 
every  direction,  swimming  swollen  streams,  braving 
the  storms  of  Winter,  and  enduring  the  fevers  of  Sum- 
mer, that  he  might  proclaim  the  cross  of  Christ  to  the 
pioneers.  .  .  .  Brother  Monroe  was  a  member  of 
eleven  General  Conferences,  and  his  voice  was  always 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  87 

heard  with  respect  in  that  body.  He  was  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Louisville  Convention  which  decided  our 
present  ecclesiastical  position.  In  the  absence  of  a 
bishop  he  was  almost  invariably  chosen  the  president 
of  the  annual  conference.  He  tilled  every  important 
office  in  the  ministry  of  the  Church  but  that  of 
bishop." 

He  died  at  home  in  the  bosom  of  his  family  a 
short  time  before  the  meeting  of  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence, 1872.  He  left  the  legacy  of  a  good  name  to  his 
family  and  the  Church. 

Before  entering  upon  his  work  Mr.  Kavanaugh 
returned  to  take  leave  of  his  mother,  a  mother 
whom  we  have  often  heard  him  declare  he  had  never 
disobeyed.  She  had  dedicated  him  to  God  in  infancy 
in  holy  baptism,  had  watched  over  him  in  childhood, 
had  followed  him  with  her  prayers  amid  the  perils  of 
youth,  and  now,  in  his  early  manhood,  she  realized 
the  consummation  of  her  wishes.  God  had  called  him 
to  preach;  of  that  she  had  no  doubt;  and  he  had 
pledged  himself  to  obedience.  He  could  not  go  to 
his  circuit  without  being  folded  once  more  in  her  lov- 
ing arms  and  resting  his  head  upon  that  breast  where 
it  had  so  often  been  pillowed.  She  gave  him  her 
blessing;  it  was  the  blessing  of  a  mother:  it  was  more; 
it  was  the  blessing  of  a  saint  who  walked  and  com- 
muned with  God.  His  outfit  was  such  as  preachers  of 
that  day  generally  hud — a  good  horse,  saddle,  and 
bridle,  a  comfortable  suit  of  clothes,  a  warm  overcoat, 
a  pair  of  saddle-bags  filled,  one  pocket  with  a  change 
of  underwear,  and  the  other  with  standard  Methodist 
books,  including  a  small  Bible*  and  hymn-book.  He 


88  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

wore  a  drab  hat,  and  his  coat  was  round-breasted,  the 
style  worn  by  the  preachers  of  that  period.  The 
hour  for  parting  arrived.  He  took  leave  first  of  the 
rest  of  the  family,  and  last  of  his  mother.  Her  words 
were  few.  "  Be  faithful,  my  son,  and  true,  and  God 
will  bless  you  and  make  you  useful."  The  tears 
coursed  their  way  down  his  face.  He  mounted  his 
horse  and  was  soon  out  of  sight* 

In  all  his  lifetime  he  had  never  felt  so  lonely  as 
on  that  day.  As  he  journeyed  along  he  thought  of 
his  mother;  or  perhaps  thoughts  of  his  sainted  father, 
that  father  of  whom  he  had  no  recollection,  flitted 
across  his  mind,  of  his  leaving  home  a  mere  youth, 
on  a  similar  mission.  He  thought,  too,  of  the  responsi- 
bilities of  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  more  than  once 
he  turned  aside  into  the  forest  and  alighted  and  knelt, 
and  prayed  for  courage  and  for  wisdom  that  he  might 
be  able  to  perform  the  duties  that  lay  before  him 
acceptably  to  God  and  with  blessing  to  the  people  he 
would  serve. 

The  distance  from  Clarke  County  to  the  Little 
Sandy  Circuit  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
and  the  country  through  which  Mr.  Kavanaugh  would 
pass  after  the  first  day's  travel  was  inclined  to  be  mount- 
ainous, with  only  an  occasional  settlement.  Sixty 
years  ago  there  was  no  turnpike  between  Lexington 
and  Maysrille,  and  the  primeval  forest  was  almost 
untouched.  Mr.  Kavanaugh  reached  his  work  in  due 
time.  The  circuit  was  large,  extending  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Big  Sandy  River  into  Pike,  Lawrence, 
Boyd,  and  Greenup  Counties,  and  along  the  Little 
Sandy,  taking  in  Carter,  Elliott,  Morgan,  Johnson, 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  89 

and  Floyd  Counties,  with  twenty-four  preaching  places. 
The  country,  too,  was  mountainous ;  the  appoint- 
ments to  be  filled  by  each  preacher  every  four  weeks. 

Mr.  Allen,  the  senior  preacher,  made  the  first 
round,  and  announced  at  each  place  where  he  preached 
an  appointment  two  weeks  later  for  his  young  col- 
league. Mr.  Kavanaugh  met  with  a  kind,  if  not  a 
cordial,  reception.  Remarkably  neat  in  his  personal 
appearance,  some  thought  he  dressed  too  fine.  His 
excellent  social  qualities,  his  cheerful  manners,  and 
his  fervent  zeal,  however,  soon  won  upon  the  hearts 
of  the  people,  so  that  they  felt  willing  to  bear  with 
him.  There  were  in  this  field  of  labor  but  few  houses 
of  worship.  The  preaching  places  were  either  small 
log  school  houses  or  the  private  dwellings  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  distance  ofttimes  between  appointments  ren- 
dered it  necessary  to  travel  in  the  afternoon  so  as  to 
be  within  reach  of  the  appointment  the  next  morning. 
Accommodations  were  frequently  uncomfortable,  but 
were  cheerfully  bestowed  by  the  settlers  of  that  rugged 
region,  and  received  by  the  preachers  with  grateful 
hearts.  He  finished  the  first  round,  hearing  every- 
where laudations  of  the  "preacher  in  charge,"  in 
which  he  heartily  joined,  for  no  young  preacher  ever 
loved  his  senior  more  than  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh 
loved  Luke  P.  Allen. 

The  equipments  of  a  preacher  of  that  period  were 
not  complete  without  a  marking  iron,  a  small,  sharp- 
pointed  rod  about  six  inches  long,  whose  use  was  to 
mark  a  tree  at  the  fork  of  the  road,  so  that  there 
would  be  no  difficulty  in  finding  the  way  on  subse- 
quent rounds.  This,  however,  often  produced  trouble. 

8 


90  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

In  making  his  first  round,  in  several  instances,  Mr. 
Ivavanaugh  marked  the  wrong  £rees.  On  the  second 
round  a  guide  accompanied  him,  making  different 
marks.  For  the  remainder  of  the  year  he  frequently 
found  it  difficult  to  decide  which  mark  to  follow. 

Having  to  preach  almost  every  day,  and  frequently 
at  night  where  he  stopped  for  rest,  he  found  but  little 
time  for  study.  In  addition  his  eyes  had  not  yet 
fully  recovered  their  strength.  Anxious  to  pursue 
the  course  of  study  devised  for  the  undergraduates, 
in  Winter  he  availed  himself  of  pine  knot  lights  at 
night,  often  reading  after  the  family  had  retired,  while 
in  the  Summer  he  read  and  studied  on  horseback 
while  pursuing  his  lonely  journey. 

The  question  has  often  been  asked,  How  did  the 
early  preachers  acquire  such  a  store  of  knowledge? 
The  answer  is,  By  recognizing  the  requirements  of 
the  Discipline  to  "never  be  unemployed,  never  be 
triflingly  employed."  That  they  were  better  theolo- 
gians than  the  majority  of  the  preachers  of  the  pres- 
ent day  will  scarcely  be  denied.  It  is  true  they  were 
not  so  familiar  with  the  discoveries  of  modern  science 
as  are  many  of  their  sons  in  the  Gospel ;  but  they 
knew  the  Scriptures,  and  presented  and  defended  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity  with  an  ability  that  has 
never  been  surpassed. 

During  the  Winter  but  little  occurred  on  the  cir- 
cuit of  special  interest.  There  were  some  awakenings 
and  a  few  conversions,  while  the  class-meetings  were 
seasons  of  spiritual  profit. 

To  say  that  the  junior  preacher  was  always  cheer- 
ful would  be  an  injustice  to  his  sensitive  nature. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  91 

The  roads  were  bad,  the  traveling  difficult,  and  some- 
times ungenerous  criticism  from  unexpected  sources 
depressed  him;  but  had  he  not  been  divinely  called 
to  this  work,  and  had  he  not  turned  his  back  upon 
all  besides,  and  would  not  God  sustain  him  if  faithful 
to  the  trust? 

The  AVinter  of  1824  lingered  long  in  the  lap  of 
Spring,  but  at  length  the  ice  and  snow  disappeared, 
and  earth  once  more  wore  its  vernal  beauty.  The 
forests  were  clothed  in  green,  and  wild  flowers 
adorned  the  mountain  sides,  throwing  their  fragrance 
on  the  balmy  air.  Nature  was  donned  in  its  most 
lovely  attire.  A.  brief  visit  to  his  mother  enlivened 
his  spirits.  They  had  knelt  and  prayed  together. 
She  encouraged  him  in  his  work.  On  his  return  he 
held  meetings  of  several  days'  continuance  when 
showers  of  grace  fell  upon  the  Church  and  upon  the 
assembly. 

The  circuit  on  which  a  preacher  travels  his  first 
year  is  invested  with  an  interest  to  him  in  after  life  that 
belongs  to  no  other  field  he  may  occupy.  Notwith- 
standing the  privations  endured  by  Mr.  Kavanaugh 
on  the  Little  Sandy  Circuit,  yet  during  his  entire 
ministry  he  held  the  people  of  that  charge  in  grateful 
recollection,  and  looked  back  to  the  year  he  spent 
among  them  with  feelings  of  indescribable  pleasure. 
A  richer  experience  far  to  him,  and  one  more  beneficial 
in  its  results,  than  if  he  had  been  stationed  in  one  of 
the  cultivated  and  refined  villages  of  the  State,  was 
his  ministry  among  the  people  in  that  rural  district. 
There  he  learned  that  a  preacher's  life  was  not  one 
of  ease,  but  of  endurance ;  and  that  the  blessings  of 


92  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

the  Gospel  were  not  confined  to  the  rich,  but  that 
"  the  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  unto  them." 
He  learned,  too,  a  lesson  of  sympathy,  so  essential  to 
the  proper  exercise  of  the  functions  of  the  high  office 
to  which  he  was  afterwards  elevated. 

On  his  way  to  the  conference  of  1824  he  visited 
his  mother,  and  detailed  to  her  an  account  of  his 
year's  labor. 

"  You  are  not  tired,  then,  my  son,  of  the  work  ?" 
inquired  his  mother. 

"  Not  at  all,"  replied  her  son.  "  I  sometimes  get 
tired  in  it,  but  never  tired  of  it.  I  have  enlisted  for 
life."  Such  was  the  language  and  such  the  feelings 
of  the  young  itinerant. 

The  conference  was  held  in  Shelbyville,  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  villages  in  the  State.  The  session 
was  opened  September  23d,  by  Bishop  Roberts. 
Bishop  Soule  was  also  present,  and  Bishop  McKen- 
dree  put  in  his  appearance  a  few  days  later. 

In  Shelbyville  the  Methodist  Church  occupied 
a  very  influential  position.  It,  however,  had  not 
reached  the  proud  summit  on  which  it  stood  without 
a  struggle.  At  every  advance  step  it  had  met  with 
opposition,  sometimes  with  doubtful  results.  Jona- 
than Stamper  had  been  presiding  elder  of  the  Salt 
River  District,  extending  from  the  Cumberland 
Mountains  to  the  city  of  Louisville  and  embracing 
Shelbyville.  The  Baptist  and  Presbyterian  Churches 
were  both  favored  with  gifted  and  able  preachers. 
In  the  former  Messrs.  Toncray  and  Waller,  and  in  the 
latter  Archibald  Cameron.  Their  attacks  upon  Meth- 
odism were  so  unwarranted  and  severe  that  Mr.  Stam- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  93 

per,  distinguished  no  less  for  his  wonderful  gifts  than 
for  his  eloquence,  determined  to  take  up  the  gauntlet 
and  hear  aloft  the  banner  of  Methodism.  Mr.  Stam- 
per was  aggressive.  Messrs.  Toncray  and  Waller 
were  driven  to  the  wall.  In  defense  of  Calvinism 
Mr.  Cameron  came  to  their  rescue,  only  to  share  the 
fate  that  had  befallen  the  heroes  of  a  lost  cause. 
Methodism  was  in  the  front. 

The  establishment  of  "  Science  Hill  Female  Acad- 
emy "  in  Shelby ville  this  year  was  destined  to  prove 
a  blessing  to  Methodism,  not  only  in  that  community 
but  throughout  the  West  and  the  South.  No  institu- 
tion of  learning,  of  high  grade,  for  young  ladies  had 
been  founded  in  Kentucky,  except  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic School  near  Bardstown  ;  and,  indeed,  there  were 
only  two  west  of  the  mountains.  Kentucky  was 
growing  in  population,  in  influence,  and  in  wealth. 
The  education  of  her  daughters  was  a  question  of 
vital  importance.  It  was  impossible  then,  as  now,  for 
Protestant,  and  especially  for  Methodist  parents,  who 
regard  the  religious  as  well  as  the  intellectual  culture 
of  their  daughters,  to  place  them  in  Romish  institu- 
tions of  learning,  under  the  guardianship  of  priests 
and  of  nuns.  But  few  instances,  comparatively,  have 
occurred  in  which  young  ladies  of  Protestant  parents 
have  been  educated  in  Roman  Catholic  schools,  who 
have  not  abjured  the  religion  of  their  father  and 
mother  and  embraced  the  fearful  heresy  of  Romanism  ; 
nor  will  it  be  denied  that  the  system  of  instruction 
adopted  in  these  schools  is  far  inferior  to  that  pursued 
in  institutions  under  the  supervision  of  evangelical 
Churches. 


94  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

John  Tevis,  after  traveling  four  years  in  Ken- 
tucky, had  been  transferred  to  the  Tennessee  Confer- 
ence, and  appointed  to  the  Holston  District.  While 
traveling  that  district  he  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Miss  Julia  A.  Hieronymus,  who  was  converted  and 
joined  the  Church  under  his  ministry,  and  whom  he 
afterward  married.  Miss  Hieronymus  was  a  Ken- 
tuckian  by  birth.  Her  father  had  resided  in  Clarke 
County,  Kentucky,  where  his  daughter  was  born  De- 
cember 5, 1799.  Anxious  to  educate  his  children,  and 
Kentucky  at  that  period  offering  but  few  facilities,  in 
1807  Mr.  Hieronymus  removed  to  Virginia  in  search 
of  a  favorable  location  for  this  purpose.  After  a  lapse 
of  years  he  settled  in  Winchester,  Virginia,  which 
then  afforded  the  best  male  and  female  schools.  There 
Miss  Hieronymus  received  such  an  education  as  se- 
cured to  her  a  firm  foundation  on  which  to  build  a 
more  extensive  superstructure.  From  Winchester  her 
father  removed  to  Washington  City,  where  she  com- 
pleted her  course  of  study.  It  was  neither  the  design 
of  the  excellent  father  in  bestowing  the  means  of 
education,  nor  the  purpose  of  his  gifted  daughter  in 
improving  the  advantages  with  which  she  was  favored, 
that  she  should  devote  her  life  to  the  instruction  of 
others.  He  was  only  preparing  her  for  society,  of 
which  he  expected  her  to  be  an  ornament,  and  little 
dreamed  of  the  brilliant  career  of  usefulness  that  lay 
before  her. 

A  reverse  in  the  affairs  of  her  father  induced  her 
to  engage  in  teaching.  In  1820  she  made  her  first 
attempt  in  this  responsible  vocation  at  Wythe  Court- 
house, Virginia.  After  remaining  there  for  more 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  95 

than  a  year,  she  went  to  Washington  County  to  be- 
come the  instructress  of  an  only  daughter  of  a  gen- 
tleman who  resided  in  that  county,  near  Abingdon. 

Immediately  after  their  marriage  in  1824,  Mr. 
Tevis,  with  his  wife,  returned  to  Kentucky,  and 
settled  in  Shelbyville.  At  the.  session  of  the  con- 
ference after  his  return  to  his  early  home  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Louisville  Station,  leaving  his  family 
in  Shelbyville;  and  in  the  month  of  March,  1825, 
Science  Hill  Female  Academy  was  founded.  The 
first  session  there  were  only  thirty-five  students,  six 
of  whom  were  boarders.  It,  however,  rapidly  ac- 
quired reputation,  and  soon  its  fame  was  spread,  not 
only  throughout  Kentucky,  but  the  whole  country, 
until  its  pupils  "  were  brought  from  afar,"  and  its 
rooms  were  crowded  with  young  ladies  preparing  for 
the  stern  duties  of  life. 

To  estimate  the  good  that  has  been  accomplished 
by  Science  Hill  is  impossible.  Of  such  eclipsing 
superiority  over  Roman  Catholic  schools,  hundreds 
sought  its  halls  who  but  for  its  existence  might  have 
been  taught  to  bow  to  the  Virgin  and  to  kiss  the  cru- 
cifix ;  hundreds  more  have  been  converted  to  God 
while  receiving  their  education  there,  and  have  re- 
turned to  the  parental  roof  "  twice  blest,"  to  enter 
upon  life's  great  battle.  For  fifty-nine  years  this  in- 
stitution has  been  on  its  mission  of  good.  Kentucky 
and  the  West  have  sustained  it  nobly,  and  the  South 
has  been  its  special  patron  and  friend.  When  pros- 
perity and  peace  reigned  supreme  in  their  sunny  homes, 
and  before  the  dark  cloud  of  war  was  seen  upon  the 
horizon,  Southern  parents  poured  their  wealth  into  its 


96  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

lap,  and  received  in  return  their  daughters  with  all 
the  accomplishments  that  a  Christian  education  can 
bestow.  All  over  the  West  and  South,  in  every  ham- 
let, village,  and  city,  home  and  society  are  blessed  by 
Christian  wives  and  mothers,  distinguished  for  all  the 
excellences  that  ennoble  woman,  who  look  back  with 
pride  to  Science  Hill  as  their  Alma  Mater.  If  grate- 
ful recollections  are  cherished  of  the  benefactors  of  a 
country,  if  deeds  of  heroism  are  not  forgotten,  and  if 
a  life  devoted  to  the  permanent  prosperity  of  the 
Church  merit  a  warm  place  in  the  affections  of  its 
members,  then  the  name  of  Mrs.  Julia  A.  Tevis  will 
be  remembered  for  ages  to  come. 

The  noble  woman  who  for  more  than  fifty  years 
conducted  this  institution  with  so  much  success  has 
entered  upon  eternal  life,  but  Science  Hill,  under  the 
supervision  of  Dr.  Poynter,  still  blesses  the  Church 
and  the  world. 

The  Newport  Circuit,  to  which  Mr.  Kavanaugh 
was  sent  this  year,  was  scarcely  less  in  its  territorial 
limits  than  the  one  he  had  previously  traveled.  It, 
however,  embraced  an  older  section  of  the  State,  in- 
cluding the  promising  town  of  Covington.  Jonathan 
Stamper  was  his  presiding  elder,  and  the  sweet-spirited 
William  H.  Askins  his  colleague.  The  appointment, 
too,  placed  him  among  relatives  and  the  friends  of. 
his  noble  grandfather,  and  opened  before  him  a  still 
wider  field  for  usefulness. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  beginning  to  attract  attention 
as  a  preacher,  while  Mr.  Askins  was  a  young  man  of 
more  than  ordinary  promise.  There  had  been  exten- 
sive revivals  throughout  the  circuit;  not  only  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  97 

previous  year,  but  for  several  years  preceding,  the 
labors  of  the  preachers  were  crowned  with  success. 
Messrs.  Kavanaugh  and  Askins  entered  upon  their 
work  with  energy  and  zeal,  and  soon,  not  only  in  New- 
port, but  all  around  the  circuit,  sinners  were  awak- 
ened and  penitents  converted  to  God. 

In  1825  his  field  of  labor  was  the  Salt  River  Cir- 
cuit, as  the  colleague  of  Thomas  Atterbury.  This 
circuit  included  Springfield  (the  last  his  father  had 
traveled  before  his  marriage),  Bloomfield,  Chaplin, 
Bardstown,  Taylorsville,  Shepherdsville,  and  West 
Point,  and  reached  out  many  miles  on  either  side. 
The  talented  Marcus  Lindsey  presided  over  the  Salt 
River  District  with  marked  ability  and  eminent  suc- 
cess. Before  his  wonderful  preaching  error  paled,  and 
Calvinism  hid  its  head ;  and  after  one  or  two  debates 
with  the  Baptist  Church  on  the  subjects  and  mode  of 
baptism  there  could  be  found  no  champion  in  their 
yanks  who  was  sufficiently  incautious  to  risk  a  passage- 
at-arms  with  this  knight  of  the  Cross. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  the  junior  preacher  on  the 
circuit,  and  was  beginning  to  occupy  a  large  space 
in  public  thought.  He  had  gradually  advanced  from 
the  commencement  of  his  ministry  until,  a  writer 
says,  "he  was  peculiarly  attractive  by  his  eloquent 
preaching." 

Bardstown  was  a  difficult  place  for  Protestant 
Christianity.  It  was  the  stronghold  of, the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  in  Kentucky,  and  for  that  denom- 
ination it  was  the  seat  of  learning  in  the  West.  St. 
Joseph's  College  was  there,  and  Nazareth,  their  pride 
and  their  boast,  was  only  two  miles  away.  For  sev- 

9 


98  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

eral  years  attempts  had  been  made  to  plant  Method- 
ism upon  its  soil,  but  without  effect,  Mr.  Kavanuugli, 
however,  drew  large  houses.  Catholics  and  Protest- 
ants came  to  hear  him,  and  under  his  powerful  ap- 
peals many  were  won  to  Christ.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  year  he  organized  a  society  in  Bardstown,  and 
received,  among  others,  into  the  Church,  Burr  H. 
McCown,  who  afterwards  became  a  distinguished 
preacher. 

In  Springfield,  too,  his  ministry  was  a  glorious  suc- 
cess; indeed,  all  through  the  circuit  he  found  way  to 
the  hearts  of  the  people. 

It  was  but  seldom  that  a  preacher  then  served  a 
charge  more  than  one  year,  but  Mr.  Atterbufy  and 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  were  both  returned  the  following  year 
to  the  Salt  River  Circuit.  Such  men  as  Judge  Rowan, 
Charles  A.  Wickliffe  and  Hon.  Ben.  Hardin,  men  of 
national  fame,  called  in  person  on  Mr.  Lindsey,  and 
solicited  his  reappointment.  Like  a  flame  of  fire  he 
passed  through  the  country,  preaching  almost  every 
day,  and  exhorting  sinners  to  repentance.  AVesleyan. 
or  rather  Pauline,  in  his  theology,  he  knew  no  com- 
promise where  it  was  assailed,  but  with  due  respect 
to  the  opinions  of  others  he  defended  his  own  views 
with  marked  ability,  while  his  life  everywhere  shed  a 
luster  upon  the  doctrines  he  taught.  There  was  not 
a  community  in  which  he  proclaimed  the  tidings  of  a 
Redeemer'sjove  where  success  was  not  achieved.  Xot 
only  at  Bardstown  and  Springfield  were  there  revi- 
vals, but  at  Chaplin,  at  Shepherdsville,  and  through- 
out the  circuit,  hundreds  accepted  Christ  and  joined 
the  Chnrch.  The  white  membership  was  almost 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  99 

doubled,  while  in  the  colored  membership  the  in- 
crease was  large. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  had  closed  his  fourth  year  in  the 
conference,  and  had  been  ordained  both  deacon  and 
elder.  From  the  time  he  became  a  traveling  preacher 
he  was  a  close  student;  and  notwithstanding  the  diffi- 
culties that  confronted  him,  he  had  not  only  read,  but 
mastered  the  entire  course  of  study  required  previous 
to  the  reception  of  elder's  orders. 

The  Church  too  had  steadily  progressed.  The 
printed  Minutes  show  an  increase  in  four  years  of 
two  thousand  four  hundred  and  eighteen  in  the  white 
membership,  and  in  the  colored  of  five  hundred  and 
nineteen.  The  increase,  however,  was  much  larger. 
The  Kanawha  District,  with  two  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  white,  and  two  hundred  and 
twenty-four  colored,  members,  formed  a  part  of  the 
membership  in  1823,  but  had  since  been  transferred 
to  the  Ohio  Conference,  which,  if  added  to  the  mem- 
bership in  the  Kentucky  Conference  in  1827,  makes 
the  increase  during  the  first  four  years  of  Mr.  Kav- 
anaugh's  ministry  jive  thousand  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enteen white,  and  seven  hundred  and  forty-three  colored. 
No  denomination,  perhaps,  in  Kentucky  had  increased 
in  the  same  ratio  during  these  four  years. 

The  increase  in  the  number  of  preachers  was 
equally  gratifying.  Instead  of  seventy-four  we  have 
ninety-four  to  proclaim  the  tidings  of  salvation. 

George  Brown,  John  P.  Finley,  Martin  Flint, 
AVilliam  Young,  John  R.  Roach,  Daniel  Black,  Oba- 
diah  Harbor,  and  Nelson  Dills  had  crossed  over  the 
last  river  and  entered  upon  eternal  life. 


100  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

John  P.  Finley  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Mr. 
Kavanaugh,  and  during  the  period  of  the  latter's  resi- 
dence in  Augusta,  previous  to  his  entrance  into  the 
ministry,"  his  daily  companion.  His  death,  which  oc- 
curred in  May,  1825,  was  deeply  mourned  by  the 
Kentucky  Conference ;  but  no  one  felt  the  bereave- 
ment more  than  did  young  Kavanaugh. 

John  P.  Finley  was  never  employed  in  the  regular 
pastoral  work.  He  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Robert 
"W.  Finley,  and  the  younger  brother  of  the  Rev.  Jas. 
B.  Finley,  who  for  .nearly  fifty  years  was  a  useful  and 
faithful  traveling  preacher,  and  who  died  on  the  6th 
of  September,  1857,  a  member  of  the  Cincinnati  .Con- 
ference, and  who  uttered,  while  dying,  as  his  last 
connected  sentence,  "  I  have  been  blessed  with  great 
peace,  wonderful  peace !  I  do  n't  know  that  I  ever 
had  such  peace  in  all  my  life  I" 

John  P.  Finley  was  born  in  North  Carolina,  June 
13,  1783.  His  excellent  father  was  a  Pennsylvauian 
by  birth,  and  was  born  in  Bucks  County,  in  that 
State,  on  the  9th  of  June,  1750.  At  the  age  of  sev- 
enteen he  experienced  religion,  and  soon  after  entered 
Princeton  College,  then  under  the  presidency  of  the 
celebrated  Dr.  Witherspoon.  In  that  institution  he 
spent  several  years  in  reference  to  the  ministry,  after 
going  through  with  his  collegiate  course.  In  1774 
he  was  licensed  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  a 
minister  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  was  sent  as 
a  missionary  to  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas.  The  dark 
cloud  of  war  was  then  spreading  over  the  political 
sky,  and  a  struggle  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
American  Colonies  was  imminent — a  struggle  that 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  101 

was  long  and  bloody.  To  his  country's  call  his  patri- 
otic heart  responded,  and  following  the  flag  and  the 
fortunes  of  the  gallant  Marion,  Mr.  Finley,  by  his 
example  and  his  valor,  rendered  valuable  service  in 
the  contest.  After  the  close  of  the  war,  in  1784,  he, 
with  a  few  others,  set  out  to  explore  the  District  of 
Kentucky.  In  this  journey  they  encountered,  for 
months  together,  many  perils  and  sufferings,  and 
finding  he  could  not  move  through  the  wilderness 
with  his  family,  he  removed  to  Virginia  and  settled 
in  Hampshire  County,  where  he  faithfully  preached 
the  Gospel  to  the  destitute  inhabitants.  He  subse- 
quently crossed  the  mountains,  and  i*eached  the  Mo- 
nongahela,  and  in  the  Autumn  of  1788  descended  the 
river  in  a  flat-boat,  and  reaching  Kentucky,  settled 
near  Stockton's  Station,  now  Flemingsburg.  Remain- 
ing here  but  a  short  time  from  apprehension  of  the 
Indians,  he  removed  to  Bourbon  County  and  settled 
on  Cane  Ridge.  At  this  place  he  not  only  preached 
to  the  people,  but  he  opened  an  institution  of  learn- 
ing of  high  grade,  literary  in  its  character,  but  with 
a  special  department  for  the  benefit  of  young  men 
who  were  preparing  for  the  ministry  and  desired  a 
theological  training.  Among  those  who  entered  as 
students  in  divinity  were  Joseph  and  John  Haw, 
William  and  Samuel  Robinson,  Archibald  Steel, 
Richard  McNamar,  John  Dunlavey,  John  Thompson, 
and  James  Welch,  all  of  whom  became  ministers  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  Messrs.  Trimble,  Mills, 
and  Campbell,  and  many  others  who  became  distin- 
guished as  members  of  the  bar,  commenced  their  sci- 
entific studies  with  Mr.  Finley.  Before  the  close  of 


102  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

the  century  he  emigrated  from  Kentucky,  and  settled 
in  the  State  of  Ohio,  below  Chillicothe,  and  was  one 
of  the  first  white  men  that  raised  corn  in  the  Scioto 
Valley. 

We  are  not  advised  as  to  the  influences  that  were 
brought  to  bear  upon  his  mind,  that  led  him,  when 
nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  to  change  his  Church  rela- 
tions. In  1808  his  two  sons,  James  and  John,  had 
professed  religion,  and  joined  the  Methodist  Church, 
and  in  the  same  year  Mr.  Finley  also  became  a  Meth- 
odist preacher.  In  1811,  then  sixty-one  years  of  age, 
he  offered  himself  to  the  Western  Conference,  and  was 
accepted,  and  for  many  years  labored  in  the  itinerant 
field  with  great  success.  But  few  men  of  his  age 
preached  so  frequently,  labored  with  so  much  zeal,  or 
so  ably  defended  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  as  he; 
and  none  surpassed  him  in  the  instruction  of  the  chil- 
dren and  youth  in  his  pastoral  charges ;  and  under  his 
ministry  hundreds  were  added  to  the  Church.  When 
near  eighty  years  of  age,  although  he  was  placed  on 
the  superannuated  list,  he  did  not  regard  his  work  as 
done,  but  frail  and  feeble  as  he  was,  he  mounted  his 
horse,  with  his  books  and  clothes,  and  setting  off 
north,  devoted  himself  as  a  missionary  in  the  regions 
of  St.  Marie,  and  formed  a  circuit,  and  appointed  a 
camp-meeting  on  the  very  frontiers  of  Methodism. 
Holiness  was  his  great  theme.  To  the  end  of  his 
noble  life  his  mind  was  calm  and  peaceful.  He  died 
December  8,  1840,  in  the  ninety-first  year  of  his  age.* 

Such  was  the  father  of  John  P.  Finley.    Brought 

*  Rev.  George  W.  Maley,  in  the  Western  Christian  Advocate, 
1841. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  103 

up  under  such  influences,  soundly  converted,  his  intel- 
lect highly  cultivated  and  richly  stored  with  Bible 
truth,  the  Church  looked  to  his  entrance  into  the 
ministry  with  much  anxiety  and  interest.  The  im- 
pressions he  had  received  at  the  Cane  Ridge  camp- 
meeting  in  1801  had  worn  away,  but  were  renewed 
in  1808,  under  a  sermon  preached  by  John  Collins, 
in  which  year  he  professed  religion  and  joined  the 
Methodist  Church.  In  September,  1810,  he  was 
licensed  to  preach.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  did 
not  at  once  enter  the  itinerant  ranks  and  devote  him- 
self exclusively  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  His 
power  to  accomplish  good  ought  not  to  have  been 
confined  to  a  local  sphere ;  yet,  as  a  local  preacher, 
from  the  time  he  was  licensed  until  1822,  when  he 
became  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  Conference,  he 
labored  in  Ohio  with  untiring  zeal  and  with  great 
success.  His  time,  however,  was  divided  between  the 
work  of  the  ministry  and  the  education  of  the  youth. 
From  the  .period  when  he  entered  the  conference 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  May,  1825,  he 
presided  over  the  fortunes  of  Augusta  College. 

"Such  was  his  popularity  as  a  citizen  of  the  new 
State  of  Ohio,  that  the  people  elected  him  twice  as  a 
member  of  the  Lower  House,  and  once  of  the  Senate 
of  their  State  Legislature.  He  was  a  man  of  more 
than  ordinary  talent — natural  and  acquired ;  but  his 
great  popularity  was  owing  to  his  amiable  disposition, 
gentle  manners,  and  many  personal  excellences.  After 
this  he  was  called  to  take  charge  of  Augusta  College 
at  its  first  organization,  and  became  the  principal  of 
this  institution,  which  is  the  oldest  Methodist  college 


104  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

in  the  Western  country.     He  continued  that  relation 
until  it  was  dissolved  by  death. 

"It  was  after  his  removal  to  Kentucky,  and  while 
engaged  as  teacher  in  the  college  at  Augusta,  that  I 
became  acquainted  with  him.  From  personal  knowl- 
edge I  could  say  much  in  his  favor  as  an  instructor 
of  youth,  a  citizen,  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  and  a 
devoted  Christian.  Religion,  cheerfulness,  edifying 
conversation  and  engaging  manners  made  him  a 
highly  acceptable  guest  in  the  .circles  where  he  was 
wont  to  move.  He  was  a  classical  scholar,  a  good 
citizen,  a  kind  husband,  an  affectionate  father,  a  warm 
and  constant  friend.  His  religion  was  pure  and  un- 
defiled  before  God  and  the  Father,  for  it  led  him  to 
visit  the  fatherless  and  the  widows  in  their  afflictions, 
and  enabled  him  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the 
world.  Very  often,  indeed,  was  he  seen  at  the  cham- 
ber of  the  sick  and  the  house  of  mourning,  and  few 
could  equal  him  in  imparting  consolation  and  encour- 
agement amid  scenes  of  distress.  In  the  pulpit  he 
was  zealous,  plain,  practical,  searching,  and  powerful. 
His  voice  was  delightful  to  the  ear,  and  his  action 
natural  and  pleasing.  By  him,  indeed,  the  violated 
law  poured  forth  its  thunders;  yet  even  then  it  was 
manifest  that  his  warnings  were  prompted  by  love  to 
God  and  man.  He  delighted  to  proclaim  the  unsearch- 
able riches  of  Christ  in  strains  of  promise,  hope,  and 
mercy.  The  sinner's  hard  heart  melted  under  his 
burning  eloquence,  and  the  despairing  penitent  trusted 
in  the  Redeemer  when  Brother  Finley  represented 
him  as  able  and  willing  to  save.  He  was  deeply  ex- 
perienced in  the  religion  of  the  Bible.  God  had  been 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGII.  105 

his  sun  and  shield,  his  stronghold  in  the  day  of  trou- 
ble; hence,  he  was  prepared  to  be  a  son  of  consola- 
tion, and  such  he  truly  was.  The  weak  and  tempted 
believer  hung  with  rapture  on  his  lips,  and  became 
wiser  and  happier  tinder  his  gracious  and  reviving 
ministrations. 

"  He  was  cut  down  not  far  from  the  summit-level 
of  human  life,  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness,  and  the 
tears  of  his  wife,  children,  relations,  and  friends.  To 
them  it  had  the  aspect  of  a  dark  and  mysterious  prov- 
idence; yet,  'just  and  true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King 
of  saints.'  As  he  approached  the  end  of  his  career  he 
gave  ample  satisfaction  that  for  him  'to  die  was  gain.' 
His  last  mortal  struggle  was  severe,  yet  the.  soul  was 
calm  and  triumphant  amid  the  convulsions  of  death; 
and  as  the  mantling  shadows  of  night  were  shrouding 
the  earth  it  fled  from  family  and  friends  to  the  para- 
dise of  God.  His  funeral  sermon  was  preached  by 
his  esteemed  friend,  the  Rev.  P.  Akers,  from  the  well- 
known  passage,  'I  know  that  my  Redeemer  livcth/ 
etc.  His  mortal  remains  are  decently  interred  at  the 
rear  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Augusta, 
Kentucky;  and  should  any  of  the  numerous  friends 
that  his  piety  and  worth  drew  around  him  visit  that 
beautiful  village,  they  may  go  and  seC  the  place  where 
they  have  .laid  him."* 


Western  Christian  Advocate,  of  August  1,  1834. 


106  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER.  IV. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 
OF  1827   TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1831. 

IN  the  Autumn  .of  1827  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Lexington  Circuit,  with  Richard 
Corwine  in  charge,  and  William  Adams,  distinguished 
for  his  zeal,  as  his  presiding  elder. 

The  Lexington  was  the  most  inviting  circuit  in 
the  State,  and  spread  over  a  beautiful  section  of 
country.  It  contained  fvventy-six  preaching  places, 
and  included  Xicholasville,  Versailles,  and  George- 
town. 

The  mother  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  resided  in  the 
bounds  of  this  circuit,  which  gave  to  her  son  the 
privilege  of  visiting  her  frequently.  He  had  but  two 
rest  days  in  the  twenty-eight,  and  he  usually  spent 
them  at  her  home. 

The  four  years  that  Mr.  Kavanaugh  had  spent  in 
the  conference,  while  success  crowned  his  ministry  in 
every  field,  had 'greatly  improved  him  as  a  preacher. 
It  is  true  he  had  not  yet  taken  rank  with  Crouch, 
with  Stevenson,  with  Stamper,  with  Morris,  and  with 
Lindsey — intellectual  giants — yet  among  the  young 
men  in  the  conference  he  occupied  a  commanding 
eminence.  His  freedom  from  ostentation,  his  un- 
feigned humility,  the  unction  with  which  he  delivered 
his  message,  his  warm,  impassioned  oratory,  together 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  107 

with  his  catholic  spirit,  had  attracted  to  him  more 
than  ordinary  attention. 

Between  the  two  preachers  there  was  a  striking 
contrast.  While  Mr.  Corwine  did  not  take  rank  in 
the  pulpit  as  one  of  the  first  preachers  in  the  confer- 
ence, yet  his  talents  were  above  mediocrity,  and  he 
was  always  acceptable  to  the  Church  as  a  minister  of 
the  Gospel.  He  never  preached  what  the  world  styles 
great  sermons,  but  he  never  failed  to  interest  and  in- 
struct. His  was  not  the  flood  of  impassioned  elo- 
quence that  overleaps  its  banks  and  carries  every 
thing  before  it ;  but  it  was  the  gentle  stream  that 
rolled  smoothly  on  within  the  limits  assigned  it, 
equally  sure  to  reach  its  destination,  bearing  upon  its 
placid  bosom  the  hopes  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  different.  He  was  more  like 
a  majestic  river  overleaping  its  banks,  and  carrying 
every  tiling  before  it.  Besides,  Mr.  Corwine  had 
traveled  the  Lexington  Circuit  before,  and  was  well 
known  to  the  people. 

The  junior  preacher  made  the  first  round  of  ap- 
pointments, but  during  the  Fall  and  Winter  did  noth- 
ing beyond  filling  his  regular  work,  and  performing 
such  pastoral  duties  as  so  large  a  field  would  permit. 

Early  in  the  Spring  the  signs  indicated  a  revival 
of  religion,  at  several  points  in  the  circuit.  The  in- 
terest gradually  increased  until  there  were  awakenings 
and  conversions  at  every  preaching  place.  The  in- 
crease in  the  membership  on  the  circuit  showed  how 
faithfully  the  preachers  had  labored. 

It  was  during  this  year  that  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was 
married.  He  met  Mrs.  Margaret  C.  Green,  of  Wood- 


108  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

ford  County,  a  lady  of  deep  piety  and  of  rare  accom- 
plishments. She  was  the  daughter  of  Charles  Railey, 
Esq.,  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  influential  gen- 
tlemen in  Kentucky.  Mr.  Railey  was  born  October 
26,  1766,  in  Powhatan  County,  Virginia,  though  prin- 
cipally brought  up  in  Chesterfield.  He  was  the  son 
of  John  and  Elizabeth  Railey,  and  was  the  first  cousin 
of  Thomas  Jeifersou.  Attracted  no  less  by  her  per- 
sonal charms  and  cultured  intellect  than  by  her  devo- 
tion to  the  Church  and  her  zeal  for  the  cause  of  Christ, 
he  sought  her  hand,  and  on  the  24th  of  July,  1828, 
she  became  his  wife.  No  marriage  could  have  been 
more  happy.  He  loved  her  with  all  the  affection  of 
his  great  warm  heart,  and  her  devotion  to  her  hus- 
band was  beautiful. 

The  conference  of  1828  met  in  Shelby ville,  and  it 
was  on  this  occasion  that  we  first  saw  and  heard  Mr. 
Ivavanaugh  preach.  He  reached  Shelby  ville  on  Sat- 
urday afternoon  before  the  session  opened,  and  on 
Sunday  was  to  occupy  the  pulpit,  both  morning  and 
evening.  . 

We  were  living  in  the  family  of  an  uncle,  S.  "W. 
Topping,  and  were  indebted  to  his  kindness  for  a 
home,  and  for  the  promise  of  an  education.  He  was, 
unfortunately,  a  follower  of  Tom  Paine,  and  had  never 
permitted  us  to  attend  Church,  although  he  occasion- 
ally went  himself.  Learning  that  a  distinguished 
preacher  would  occupy  the  pulpit  on  Sunday  morning, 
he  concluded  to  go  and  hear  him.  The  subject  on 
which  Mr.  Kavanaugh  preached  embraced  the  respon- 
sibility of  parents  and  guardians.  Attracted  by  the 
simplicity  with  which  the  preacher  uttered  divine 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  109 

truths,  and  by  his  eloquence,  he  listened  with  patience. 
He  at  length  reached  that  portion  of  the  subject  in- 
volving the  question  of  parental  responsibility,  charg- 
ing that  God  would  hold  men  to  strict  accountability 
for  the  conduct  and  final  salvation  of  children  in- 
trusted to  their  training.  On  his  return  home  Mr. 
Topping  was  serious,  and,  although  but  little  inclined 
to  converse,  spoke  kindly  of  the  preacher.  He  thought 
him  sincere,  whether  his  religion  was  a  reality  or  a 
myth. 

Later  in  the  afternoon  he  said,  "Albert,  you  can 
go  to  Church  this  evening  if  you  wish,  and  hear  this 
great  preacher."  We  had  never  heard  a  sermon,  and 
felt  no  inclination  to  go ;  but  when  we  declined,  he 
said,  "  But  you  will  go,  for  I  am  going,  and  will  take 
you  with  me." 

The  church  stood  on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  was 
crowded  when  we  entered  it.  A  convenient  seat  was 
offered  us,  for,  although  a  deist,  he  was  much  beloved 
by  the  people  for  his  great  charity  and  kindness  of 
heart. 

The  place  was  new.  The  preacher  arose  and  read 
his  hymn.  He  was  low,  only  five  feet  and  four  inches 
in  height,  and  yet  of  heavy  build.  Ho  prayed.  It 
seemed  that  he  was  talking  with  God.  Another 
hymn  was  sung  and  then  he  announced  his  text — we 
could  never  forget  it — Hebrews  xii,  1,  2:  "Where- 
fore, seeing  we  also  are  compassed  about  with  so  great 
a  cloud  of  witnesses,  let  us  lay  aside  every  weight 
and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily  beset  us,  and  let  us 
run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us, 
looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of  our 


110  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

faith;  who  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him  endured 
the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  set  down  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God." 

The  sermon  was  grand  from  the  commencement 
to  the  close.  For  an  hour  and  a  half  he  held  spell- 
bound that  vast  assembly.  His  peroration  thrilled 
every  heart.  As  he  contemplated  Christ  as  he  passed 
away  from  earth,  Avhither  he  had  come  to  redeem  fallen 
man,  and  entering  heaven  to  share  with  the  Father 
the  glory  he  had  in  the  long  past,  shouts  of  Alleluia 
broke  upon  the  evening  air.  The  preacher's  voice 
rose  above  the  noise  as  he  exclaimed:  "Yes,  there  to 
intercede  for  the  millions  purchased  with  his  blood."* 

We  may  have  been  too  young  to  form  a  proper 
estimate  at  that  time  of  the  gifts  of  the  preacher,  but 
from  that  hour  to  this  he  has  been  our  beau  ideal  of 
a  Gospel  minister.  In  childhood,  in  youth,  in  early 
and  in  mature  manhood,  and  in  declining  years,  we 
have  heard  the  ablest  preachers  among  all  denomina- 
tions of  Christians,  but  never  have  we  heard  his  equal. 
Nor  was  it  simply  the  impression  made  upon  the  mind 
of  a  child  that  induces  this  conception  of  his  wonderful 
pulpit  powers,  but  not  a  year  has  passed  since  then, 
unless  during  his  absence  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  when 
we  have  not  listened  to  the  words  of  life  as  they  fell 
from  his  lips,  and  still  our  opinion  has  undergone  no 
revision. 

From   the    Lexington    Circuit  we  follow  him  to 


*  We  wrote  a  few  years  ago  a  full  sketch  of  this  sermon  and 
asked  Bishop  Kavanaugh  if  he  ever  heard  it  before.  He  re- 
plied: "Yes,  I  preached  that  in  Shelbyville  nearly  fifty  years 
ago." 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  Ill 

Russellville,  where  he  succeeded  Simon  Peter.  A 
small  society  of  Methodists  was  organized  in  Russell- 
ville  as  early  as  1808,  but  in  1821  numbered  only 
twelve  persons. 

In  1823  Edward  Stevenson,  the  Apollos  of  the 
Kentucky  Conference,  was  stationed  in  Bowling  Green 
and  Russellville,  and  was  returned  the  following  year 
to  Russellville,  which  had  been  separated  from  Bowl- 
ing Green.  His  ministry  was  greatly  blessed.  An 
extraordinary  revival  crowned  his  labors  the  first 
year,  from  which  he  reported  at  the  ensuing  confer- 
ence seventy-nine  white  and  fourteen  colored  mem- 
bers, and  at  the  close  of  the  second  year  eighty-nine 
white  and  twenty-four  colored  members.  The  tal- 
ented Peter  Akers  succeeded  Mr.  Stevenson,  and  re- 
ported at  the  close  of  the  year  one  hundred  white  and 
twenty-five  colored  members.  In  1826  Mr.  Akers  was 
returned,  and  had  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  a  great 
revival  under  his  ministry,  leaving  at  the  close  of  his 
second  year  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  white  and 
twenty-eight  colored  members.  In  1827,  under  the 
ministry  of  Mr.  Peter,  the  report  of  numbers  made 
the  previous  year  is  unchanged.* 

The  appointment  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  to  that  charge 
in  1828  gave  great  satisfaction.  While  during  the 
year  there  was  no  general  revival,  yet  a  good  religious 
sentiment  prevailed  under  his  pastorate.  The  con- 
gregations were  large  and  serious,  and  the  Church 
was  greatly  edified. 


*Mr.  Peter,  in  all  probability,  failed  to  make  any  report, 
and  the  secretary  took  the  figures  of  the  former  year  as  ap- 
proximately correct. 


112  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Littleton  Fowler,  his  intimate  friend,  was  stationed 
in  Bowling  Green.  He  held  a  meeting  in  February 
in  which  Mr.  Kavanaugh  assisted  him  and  accom- 
plished much  good.  From  the  commencement  of  the 
meeting  public  thought  was  arrested,  and  a  spirit  of 
awakening  permeated  the  community.  On  Sunday,  at 
eleven  o'clock,  he  preached  on  the  general  judgment, 
and  such  was  the  impression  made  upon  the  audience 
that  many  arose  from  their  seats  and  cried  for  mercy. 
The  scenes  of  that  day  were  so  vividly  brought  before 
the  minds  of  those  who  heard  him  that  they  could 
almost  behold  God  in  grandeur,  the  world  on  fire,  the 
descending  Judge,  and  the  universe  assembled  before 
him,  and  catch  the  final  sentence  as  it  fell  irrevocably 
from  the  lips  of  the  Son  of  Man. 

"  But  when  shall  these  things  occur  ?"  The  anx- 
iety of  the  world  as  to  when  the  judgment  will  take 
place  is  not  peculiar  to  the  age  in  which  we  live.  The 
disciples  sought  to  learn  from  Christ  when  they  asked: 
"  Tell  us  when  shall  these  things  be,  and  what  shall 
be  the  sign  of  thy  coming,  and  of  the  end  of  the 
world/'  The  Savior  advises  them  that  it  should  be 
preceded  by  signs  in  the  heavens  and  on  the  earth. 
Its  appearance  shall  be  sudden.  "  For  as  the  light- 
ning cometh  out  of  the  east  and  shineth  even  unto 
the  west,  so  also  shall  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man 
be."  "The  sun  shall  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall 
not  give  her  light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven 
and  the  powers  of  the  heavens  shall  be  shaken,  and 
there  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in 
heaven,  and  then  shall  the  tribes  of  the  earth  mourn, 
and  they  shall  see  the  Sou  of  Man  coming  in  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  113 

clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory.  And 
he  shall  send  his  angels,  with  a  great  sound  of  a  trum- 
pet, and  they  shall  gather  together  his  elect  from  one 
end  of  heaven  to  the  other." 

"  But  of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no  man,  not 
the  angels  of  heaven,  but  my  Father  only." 

No  man  knoweth  the  day.  Day  is  here  used  for 
season. 

It  may  be  in  Springtime,  when  Nature  is  donned 
in  its  loveliest  attire ;  when  earth  wears  its  vernal 
beauty,  and,  freed  from  the  snows  and  storms  of  Win- 
ter, invites  the  toil  of  the  husbandman ;  when  the 
forests,  clothed  in  foliage  of  green  and  enlivened  with 
"  the  lulling  strains  the  feathered  warblers  woo," 
a-nd  roses  throw  their  fragrance  on  the  balmy  air. 
Or  it  may  be  in  Summer,  when  the  golden  harvest 
bends  beneath  the  reaper's  sickle,  and  plants  and 
flowers  adorn  hill  and  vale ;  or  it  may  be  when  the 
frosts  of  Autumn  touch  the  ripened  crop,  and  men 
are  wondering  where  they  may  store  their  harvest; 
or  it  may  be  amid  Winter's  chilling  blast,  when  all 
Nature  wears  its  mantle,  whose  robes  in  gorgeous 
splendor  hang  in  icy  folds  over  land  and  sea,  that  the 
last  loud  trump  may  sound. 

"  No  man  knoweth  the  hour."  The  day  may  open 
like  other  days  that  have  preceded  it.  The  sun  may 
be  shining  with  his  accustomed  splendor,  or  the 
moon,  donned  in  her  silvery  robes,  may  be  walking 
like  a  queen  through  the  heavens,  or  the  stars  may 
be  keeping  time  to  the  world's  clock, .when  the  com- 
mencement day  of  the  final  examination  begins. 

"No    man    knoweth    the   hour."      It   may  be   in 

10 


114  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

early  morn,  when  the  sun  first  gilds  the  eastern  hori- 
zon, that  a  sound,  loud  and  shrill,  to  which  the  ear 
had  never  before  been  used,  may  fall  on  earth  and 
sea;  or  at  noon,  when  the  king  of  day  is  driving  his 
fiery  chariot  through  the  heavens,  when  the  last,  loud 
note  of  time  may  send  its  deafening  peals  through 
the  valleys  and  up  the  rock-ribbed  mountain  sides, 
proclaiming  the  funeral  of  the  world;  or  it  may  be 
just  as  the  monarch  of  the  sky,  after  pouring  his 
radiant  beams  on  hill  and  vale,  gladdening  the  hearts 
of  millions,  is  hiding  his  face  behind  the  hills  of  the 
west,  that  the  funeral  dirge  of  time  may  be  sung ;  or 
at  midnight  the  world  may  be  startled  from  its  sleep 
by  the  fearful  cry,  "  Arise,  ye  dead,  and  come  to 
judgment."  But  whether  at  morn,  or  noon,  or  night, 
every  ear  shall  hear  the  summons,  and  every  eye  shall 
behold  the  Son  of  Man  as  he  comes  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him. 

The  effect  of  this  sermon  was  wonderful,  while 
many  resolved  upon  a  better  life,  and  kept  their  vows. 

The  following  year  we  find  Mr.  Kavanaugh  in 
Louisville,  with  Littleton  Fowler  as  his  colleague. 

The  first  Methodist  Society  in  Louisville  was  or- 
ganized in  1805,  the  village  then  being  embraced  in 
the  Salt  River  and  Shelby  Circuit.  Previous  to  1809 
the  little  congregation  worshiped  in  a  log  school- 
house,  which  occupied  the  ground  near  where  the 
court-house  now  stands. 

In  the  erection  of  a  house  of  worship  in  Louis- 
ville, the  Methodists  led  in  the  van  of  the  Churches. 
In  1809  a  lot  was  procured  on  the  north  side  of  Mar- 
ket Street,  between  Seventh  and  Eighth  Streets,  where 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  115 

a  small  church,  the  first  in  the  village,  was  erected. 
In  1816  the  first  church  was  sold,  and  a  lot  procured 
on  Fourth  Street,  between  Market  and  Jefferson,  on 
which  a  more  commodious  church  edifice  was  built.* 

At  the  time  Methodism  made  its  first  appearance 
in  Louisville,  the  Salt  River  and  Shelby  Circuit  in- 
cluded all  that  portion  of  Kentucky.  The  following 
year  it  was  detached  from  the  Salt  River  and  trans- 
ferred to  the  Shelby,  in  which  it  was  continued  until 
the  formation  of  the  Jefferson  Circuit,  in  1811,  when 
it  became  a  preaching  place  in  that  charge.  It  re- 
mained in  the  Jefferson  Circuit  until  1818,  when  it 
was  formed  into  a  station,  and  Henry  B.  Bascom  ap- 
pointed the  pastor. 

When,  in  1829,  Messrs.  Kavanaugh  and  Fowler 
were  appointed  to  Louisville,  the  population  amounted 
to  ten  thousand  persons,  with  a  membership  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  four  hundred  and 
twenty-six,  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  being  colored. 
The  labors  of  these  earnest  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
were  greatly  blessed.  A  revival  of  religion,  com- 
mencing soon  after  the  close  of  the  conference,  in 
which  hundreds  were  converted,  continued  during 
the  Winter  to  bless  the  Church.  The  health  of  the 
junior  preacher  was  feeble,  which  imposed  the  greater 
portion  of  the  labor  on  Mr.  Kavanaugh,  who  seemed 
capable  of  any  amount  of  endurance.  At  the  close 
of  the  year  there  were  reported  six  hundred  and 
thirteen,  three  hundred  and  eighty  of  whom  were 
white ;  about  one-seventeenth  of  the  population  being 
Methodi-i-. 


*  The  New  York  store  now  occupies  the  ground. 


116  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

One  of  the  sweetest  spirits  that  ever  belonged  to 
the  Methodist  ministry  in  the  West  was  Littleton 
Fowler.  He  was  the  son  of  Godfrey  and  Clora 
Fowler,  and  was  born  September  12,  1802,  in  Smith 
County,  Tennessee.  In  1806  he  emigrated  to  Cald- 
well  County,  Kentucky.*  At  a  camp-meeting  held  at 
Bethlehem,  in  Caldwell  County,  in  June,  1819,  by 
the  Cumberland  Presbyterians,  he  was  converted  to 
God,  and  soon  afterward  joined  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church.  The  facilities  for  obtaining  an  education 
in  the  portion  of  Kentucky  in  which  his  father  re- 
sided Avere  by  no  means  favorable.  His  opportunities 
for  doing  so  were  confined  to  the  instructions  he  re- 
ceived from  the  itinerant  schoolmaster,  who  taught 
for  only  short  terms,  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
country. 

From  early  youth  he  manifested  unusual  integ- 
rity of  character,  was  reliable  in  all  his  statements, 
and  ready  and  willing  to  resent  any  insinuation  de- 
rogatory to  his  honor  or  the  correctness  of  his  pur- 
pose. In  his  business  plans  he  was  persevering, 
attentive,  and  industrious.  As  he  grew  up  he  be- 
came impressed  with  the  importance  of  cultivating 
and  adopting  a  pleasing  manner  in  his  social  inter-, 
course,  and  availed  himself  of  all  the  means  in  his 
power  to  effect  it. 

In  1817  or  1818  he  had  a  fall  from  his  horse, 
sustaining  an  injury  thereby  from  which  he  never 
fully  recovered ;  and  from  that  time  his  health  was 

*The  General  Minutes  state  that  his  father  removed  to 
Kentucky  in  1811,  but  a  letter  to  the  author  from  the  Hon. 
Judge  Fowler,  of  Smithland,  Ky.,  a  brother  of  the  Rev-  L. 
Fowler,  fixes  the  date  at  1806. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  117 

imperfect,  and  he  was  very  frequently  subject  to  long 
and  painful  confinements.  These  afflictions  were 
drawbacks  on  his  labors  and  usefulness,  and  very  de- 
pressing to  his  spirits.*  "  In  stature  he  was  a  little 
more  than  six  feet  high,  yet  inclined  fo  leanness. 
His  forehead  was  high,  expansive,  and  commanding. 
His  eye  dark,  brilliant,  and  deeply  set.  '  The  features 
of  his  face,  though  well  defined,  were  regular." 

In  1820  he  was  licensed  to  exhort,  and  September 
30th,  in  the  same  year,  to  preach  the  Gospel,  and  en- 
tered the  Kentucky  Conference  the  next  month. 

In  entering  the  ministry,  Mr.  Fowler  was  influ- 
enced only  by  the  obligations  that  rested  upon  him 
and  his  love  for  the  souls  of  men ;  and  during  the 
twenty  years  he  spent  as  an  evangelist,  none  of  his 
contemporaries  labored  more  faithfully  to  promote  the 
cause  of  the  Redeemer  than  he.  His  first  appoint- 
ment was  to  the  Red  River  Circuit,  as  the  colleague 
of  Richard  Corwine.  Of  a  frail  constitution,  his 
health  became  so  impaired  by  the  labors  of  the  year, 
that,  at  the  conference  of  1827,  he  was  left  "  without 
an  appointment  in  consequence  of  affliction."  In 
1828  we  find  him  in  charge  of  the  Church  in  Bowl- 
ing Green,  and  in  1829  at  Louisville,  as- the  colleague 
of  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh.  We  next  meet  him  in 
the  Cynthiana  Station,  and  in  1831  at  Maysville.  In 
all  these  charges  success  crowned  his  labors.  While 
in  the  Maysville  Station  his  health  became  so  much 
impaired  that  he  was  able  to  perform  the  duties  of 
the  pastorate  for  only  a  portion  of  the  year;  but  at 
the  subsequent  conference  it  so  far  improved  that  he 

*  Letter  to  the  author  from  the  Hon.  Judge  Fowler. 


118  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

was  transferred  to  the  Tennessee  Conference,  and  sta- 
tioned at  Tuscumbia.  At  the  conference  of  1833  he 
was  appointed  the  agent  of  La  Grange  College,  which 
position  he  filled  for  four  years. 

The  republic  of  Texas  had  just  come  out  of  a 
fierce  and  bloody  war.  In  her  efforts  to  become  an 
independent  nation  she  had  the  sympathy  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  and  received  timely  assist- 
ance from  many  of  her  sons,  who  bore  arms  in  her 
defense.  The  country,  although  comparatively  a  wil- 
derness, was  receiving  a  large  accession  to  its  popula- 
tion from  the  United  States.  To  the  Church  Texas 
opened  up  a  field  for  usefulness  vast  in  extent,  with 
its  fields  already  white  unto  harvest.  In  the  early  an- 
nals of  Methodism  in  Texas,  the  name  of  Littleton 
Fowler  will  forever  be  conspicuous.  On  the  22d  of 
August,  1837,  he  received  the  appointment  as  mis- 
sionary to  Texas,  and  preached  his  first  sermon  in 
Nacogdoches  on  the  16th  of  October.  He  attended 
the  next  session  of  the  Tennessee  Conference,  held  at 
Huntsville,  Alabama,  and  the  same  year  returned  to 
Texas  as  superintendent  of  the  Texas  Mission,  which 
embraced  the  entire  territory  of  the  republic.  In 
1839  the  work  was  divided  into  two  districts,  and  he 
was  placed  in  charge  of  the  eastern  division,  called 
San  Augustine  District.  At  the  organization  of  the 
Texas  Conference  in  1840,  he  was  continued  on  the 
San  Augustine  District.  In  1841,  he  was  appointed 
agent  for  Rutersville  College,  and  in  1842  he  traveled 
the  Lake  Soda  District,  on  which  he  was  continued 
the  following  year.  The  Texas  Conference  for  1843 
was  held  in  December  previous  to  the  General  Con- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  119 

ference  of  1844,  when  the  work  in  Texas  was  divided 
into  two  conferences,  called  Texas  and  East  Texas 
Conferences.  The  East  Texas  Conference,  of  which 
Mr.  Fowler  was  a  member,  convened  on  the  8th  of 
January,  1845,  at  which  time  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Sabine  District,  on  which  he  closed  his  labors. 

Even  a  cursory  glance  at  the  appointments  he  filled 
impresses  us  at  once  with  the  vast-ness  of  his  labors. 
The  districts  he  traveled  spread  over  a  territory  more 
than  equal  in  extent  to  that  embraced  in  many  of  the 
annual  conferences.  His  quarterly-meetings  were  often 
separated  by  a  journey  of  several  days,  "  which  had 
to  be  traveled  alone,  without  reference  to  weather  or 
accommodation."  The  ground  was  frequently  the  bed 
on  which  he  slept,  with  no  covering  but  the  broad, 
blue  sky.  He  often  had  to  leave  the  trails,  and  con- 
ceal "  himself  behind  some  friendly  covert,  to  elude 
the  glance  of  the  treacherous  Indian."  Texas  society 
was  then  in  its  rude  state,  and  to  perform  the  duties 
of  a  missionary  subjected  the  faithful  preacher  to  pri- 
vations and  want  at  every  step.  Littleton  Fowler, 
however,  had  counted  the  cost  before  accepting  this 
sacred  trust;  and  in  the  prosecution  of  his  duties  no 
danger  daunted  him,  no  sacrifice  turned  him  from  the 
path  of  duty.  How  well  he  and  his  noble  compeers 
accomplished  their  work  the  success  that  followed 
their  ministry  must  decide.  Mr.  Fowler  entered 
Texas  in  October,  1837,  and  died  January  19,  1846. 
He  had  spent  less  than  nine  years  in  that  field.  The 
records  of  missionary  labors  scarcely  present  results 
equal  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  in  Texas  during 
these  few  years.  At  the  conference  succeeding  his 


LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

death  there  were  in  Texas  two  annual  conferences, 
with  six  districts,  forty-three  separate  charges,  fifty- 
nine  effective  and  two  superannuated  preachers,  sixty 
preachers  in  the  local  ranks,  and  a  membership  of 
five  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-eight  white, 
and  eleven  hundred  and  ninety-five  colored. 

"The  intellectual  powers  of  Littleton  Fowler  were 
of  a  very  high  order.  His  views  of  every  subject  were 
liberal  and  comprehensive.  Though  his  early  educa- 
tion was  defective,  he  compensated  that  by  close  and 
untiring  application  after  he  was  admitted  to  the  min- 
istry. During  the  whole  of  his  life  he  was  a  student. 
He  had  an  excellent  memory,  which  retained  with 
remarkable  tenacity  the  knowledge  of  whatever  he 
studied.  .  .  .  His  style  of  speaking,  both  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  ordinary  conversation,  was  rigidly  cor- 
rect, so  that  I  was  surprised  to  learn  from  his  own 
lips  that  he  had  never  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  scholastic 
training,  but  that  his  attainments  were  almost  entirely 
self-acquired.  He  reasoned  accurately  and  logically, 
and  seldom  failed  to  convince  his  auditors  of  the  truth 
of  any  position  he  assumed.  He  was  always  inclined 
to  address  the  judgments  of  men  first,  and  when  they 
were  convinced,  or  when  he  conceived  that  he  had 
said  enough  to  effect  that  object,  he  would  follow  with 
an  appeal  to  their  emotions  and  sympathies,  which 
rarely  failed  of  its  effect.  He  was  interesting  as  a 
speaker,  because  he  always  led  his  hearers  to  his  con- 
clusions by  the  same  process  of  reasoning  which  had 
brought  his  own  mind  to  them.  I  have  often  heard 
him  commence  his  sermon  in  the  mildest  manner.  He 
would  continue  for  some  time  as  if  in  conversation 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  121 

with  his  audience,  or  as  if  demonstrating  a  proposi- 
tion in  mathematics;  then  warming  with  his  subject, 
his  fine  eye  would  kindle  with  enthusiasm,  his  words 
would  enchain  every  ear,  and  his  sincerity  would  pen- 
etrate every  heart.  If  to  be  able  to  instruct,  to  in- 
terest, to  hold  in  breathless  silence  an  assembly,  be 
an  orator,  then  he  was  an  orator.  The  love  of  God, 
the  love  of  man,  the  eternal  happiness  of  heaven,  were 
his  favorite  themes;  and  if  you  heard  him  discuss 
them  when  his  mind  and  soul  were  fully  aroused,  ydu 
almost  felt  the  arms  of  divine  mercy  encircling  you ; 
you  could  forgive  him  whom  you  thought  your  direst 
enemy;  you  could  see  the  benignant  faces  of  saints 
and  angels  round  'the  throne  of  Him  that  liveth  for- 
ever and  ever.'  He  seldom  spoke  of  the  threatenings 
of  God ;  but  when  he  did,  the  sinner  who  heard  him 
was  awe-stricken  and  overpowered  with  a  sense  of  his 
own  unworthiness ;  and  he  who  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  do  the  will  of  God  by  his  love  and  promises,  was 
terrified  into  submission  by  fear  of  his  righteous  judg- 
ments. .  .  . 

"On  the  21st  of  June,  1839,  not  long  after  his 
arrival  in  Texas,  Mr.  Fowler  was  married  to  Mrs. 
Missouri  M.  Porter,  then  of  Nacogdoches,  a  lady 
whose  mind,  disposition,  and  accomplishments  ren- 
dered her  fully  worthy  of  his  love  and  confidence. 
She  made  him  ever  a  faithful,  affectionate,  and  de- 
voted wife.  After  his  marriage  he  settled  in  Sabine 
County,  where  he  established  a  home  which  was  his 
while  he  lived,  and  is  that  of  his  family  still.  As  the 
head  of  his  family,  he  was  distinguished  for  that  hos- 
pitality, generosity,  courtesy,  and  open-hearted  de- 
ll 


122  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

meaner  which  everywhere  and  always  characterize 
alike  the  gentleman  and  the  Christian.  .  .  . 

"His  last  sermon  was  preached  in  the  village  of 
Douglass,  in  Nacogdoches  County,  from  Rom.  i,  16: 
'  For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.'  It 
is  said  to  have  been  equal  to  any  of  his  best  efforts. 
He  died  on  the  19th  of  January,  1846.  He  was  taken 
sick  early  in  that  month  and  declined  rapidly.  From 
the  commencement  of  his  illness  he  seemed  impressed 
with  the  belief  that  he  should  not  recover.  I  visited 
him  several  times  and  found  him  always  patient  under 
his  sufferings  and  submissive  to  the  will  of  God.  He 
seemed  to  have  no  regret  at  dying,  except  the  thought 
of  leaving  his  family.  He  would  frequently  allude  to 
his  two  small  children,  the  older  then  being  but  six 
years  of  age,  in  the  most  touching  manner,  but  would 
invariably  recall  himself  to  his  Christian  frame  of 
mind  by  saying,  'God  will  take  care  of  them.  He 
has  promised  to  be  a  husband  to  the  widow,  and  a 
father  to  the  fatherless.'  There  never  was  any  per- 
manent improvement  in  his  condition  from  the  first 
moment  of  his  attack.  The  ablest  physicians  of  the 
country  endeavored  to  arrest  his  disease,  but  without 
effect.  Death  had  marked  him  for  his  own,  and  of 
this  he  constantly  and  confidently  assured  his  friends. 
He  was  triumphant  in  death." 

The  conference  of  1830,  held  in  Russell ville,  was 
a  pleasant  one  to  Mr.  Kavanaugh.  It  afforded  him 
the  opportunity  of  visiting  a  people  with  whom  he 
"had  taken  sweet  counsel,"  and  to  whom  he  had 
broken  the  bread  of  life.  It  is  true  that  only  one 
year  had  elapsed  since  he  had  left  that  delightful 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  123 

charge,  but  the  privilege  of  mingling  once  more  in 
the  home  circle  of  a  people  he  loved  so  well  must  be 
enjoyed  to  be  appreciated. 

From  this  conference  he  was  sent  to  Danville  and 
Harrodsburg.  These  towns  were  ten  miles  apart,  and 
were  located  not  only  in  a  beautiful  section  of  the 
State,  but  in  that  portion  that  was  settled  at  an  early 
date. 

The  first  Methodist  society  in  the  district  of  Ken- 
tucky was  organized  in  1783  by  Francis  Clarke,  a 
local  preacher,  who  emigrated  from  Virginia  to  Ken- 
tucky that  year.  He  settled  in  Mercer  County  and 
organized  a  class  about  six  miles  west  from  the  town 
of  Danville.  The  Danville  Circuit  appears  in  the 
Minutes  as  early  as  1788,  yet  many  years  elapsed 
after  this  period  before  Methodism  Was  established  in 
that  beautiful  and  prosperous  village,  or  even  before 
a  society  was  formed. 

In  1813  there  was  a  Methodist  family  in  Danville 
by  the  name  of  Walker.  They  were  deeply  pious, 
and  the  only  representatives  of  Methodism  in  that 
place.  The  village  had  been  visited  by  Methodist 
preachers  at  an  early  day,  but  no  society  was  organ- 
ized until  1823,  when  a  small  class  was  formed  by 
Henry  McDaniel. 

From  this  period  until  the  conference  of  1825  the 
court-house  was  occupied  by  the  Methodists  as  a  place 
of  worship,  and  here  a  congregation  of  about  seven 
persons  waited  upon  the  ministry  of  the  preacher. 

At  the  conference  of  1825,  Lewis  Parker  and 
Evan  Stevenson  were  appointed  to  the  Danville  Cir- 
cuit. Mr.  Parker  was  one  of  the  ablest  members  of 


124  LIFE   AND    TIMES  OF 

the  conference,  while  Mr.  Stevenson  was  a  youth  of 
more  than  ordinary  promise,  and  distinguished  for 
his  energy  and  zeal.  Under  the  warm  and  earnest 
preaching  of  these  devoted  men  the  community  were 
so  fully  awakened  that  the  court-house  became  too 
small  to  contain  the  congregations,  and  they  had  to 
repair  to  the  market-house.  Notwithstanding  the 
deep  impressions  made  by  the  ministry  of  Parker  and 
Stevenson,  under  their  labors  there  was  no  material 
increase  in  the  membership  of  the  Church.  Many 
persons,  however,  had  been  awakened,  and  many 
hearts  had  been  divinely  impressed. 

Parker  and  Stevenson  were  followed  by  William 
Holman  and  Henry  S.  Duke,  who  entered  upon  their 
work  with  spirit  and  energy.  The  class  was  small, 
consisting  of  Mrs.  Fleece — who  was  the  first  to  join 
it — Mrs.  Crutchfield,.Miss  Crutchfield,  Miss  Wheeler, 
and  two  colored  members,  Rachel  Mcllvoy  and  Sarah 
Carter. 

The  impressions  that  had  been  made  on  the  popu- 
lar mind  had  not  passed  away  when  Holman  and 
Duke  appeared  in  Danville.  Very  soon,  under  their 
ministry,  many  souls  were  converted  to  God,  and  a 
number  of  persons  connected  with  the  best  families 
became  members  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

At  no  place  in  Kentucky  have  stronger  prejudices 
existed  against  Methodism  than  in  Danville.  As  the 
Methodist  Church  has  predominated  in  many  portions 
of  the  State,  so  has  the  Presbyterian  Church,  from  the 
commencement  of  the  present  century,  been  stronger 
in  Danville  than  any  other.  The  Central  College, 
chartered  in  1819,  is  located  there,  and  is  under  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  125 

patronage  of  that  denomination.  However  gratifying 
it  may  have  been  to  the  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  to  witness  the  displays  of  Divine  power  under 
the  ministry  of  Holman  and  Duke,  yet  that  persons 
who  might  desire  to  enter  the  Methodist  communion 
should  meet  with  opposition  from  their  friends  ex- 
cites no  surprise. 

From  this  period  the  Methodist  Church  has  occu- 
pied an  elevated  position  in  this  place,  numbering 
among  its  members  some  of  the  most  influential  fam- 
ilies in  the  State. 

At  the  conference  of  1827  William  Holman  was 
appointed  to  Danville  and  Harrodsburg,  a  station  just 
formed.  The  success  that  had  attended  his  ministry 
in  Danville  the  previous  year  had  so  strengthened  the 
Church  at  that  place  as  to  require  almost  entirely  the 
services  of  a  preacher ;  and  the  popularity  and  influ- 
ence of  Mr.  Holman  in  that  community  rendered  his 
reappointment  an  imperative  necessity.  At  Harrods- 
burg we  had  no  Church  organization,  nor  had  Chris- 
tianity, under  any  other  denominational  influences, 
made  much  impression  on  the  people. 

The  ministry  of  Mr.  Holman  in  Harrodsburg,  dur- 
ing the  Autumn  and  Winter,  was  highly  acceptable  to 
the  people,  but  no  society  was  formed  until  the  Spring 
of  1828,  when  Christopher  Chinn,  Sarah  W.  S.  Chinn, 
John  L.  Smedley,  Nancy  Brown,  Elias  Passmore,  Eliza- 
beth Passmore,  and  Margaret  Tadlock  joined  the 
Church,  and  constituted  the  first  class. 

At  the  time  when  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  appointed 
to  this  charge  there  was  a  membership  of  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-eight  white,  and  seventy  colored,  but 


126  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

whether  the  larger  membership  was  in  Danville  or 
Harrodsburg  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining.  It 
is,  however,  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Church  in 
Danville  was  the  stronger,  as  it  was  planted  earlier 
on  that  soil  than  at  Harrodsburg. 

If  the  success  that  had  attended  his  ministry  in 
other  fields  was  not  seen  in  the  results  of  his  labors 
here,  yet  under  his  pastoral  care  the  Church  was 
greatly  blessed  and  prospered.  The  revival  that  had 
occurred  under  the  faithful  work  of  Mr.  Holman  left 
to  his  successor  the  watch-care  and  nursing  of  the 
young  members,  and  for  this  department  of  a  preach- 
er's work  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  well  adapted,  and  to 
this  task  he  addressed  himself  with  assiduity  and  zeal. 
The  surrounding  country,  too,  was  favored  with  his 
preaching.  He  visited  the  neighboring  towns  and 
country  places,  and  assisted  the  preachers  in  their 
work,  revivals  crowning  his  labors.  Although  only 
eight  years  had  elapsed  since  he  entered  the  confer- 
ence he  now  stood  on  a  commanding  eminence.  His 
progress  had  been  rapid,  and  his  ministry  sought  by 
the  most  popular  towns  in  the  State.  He  worked  by 
the  side  of  the  most  distinguished  preachers  in  the 
conference  as  their  peer,  while  his  pulpit  labors  were 
characterized  with  a  zeal  that  was  scarcely  equaled  by 
his  co-laborers,  and  certainly  not  excelled. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  127 


v. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 
OF  1831   TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1835. 

WE  alluded  in  the  previous  chapter  to  the  high 
rank    that    Mr.  Kavanaugh    had    taken    as    a 
preacher. 

His  subjects  were  always  well  chosen,  and  his  ser- 
mons the  result  of  intense  thought  and  close  study. 
It  was  not  so  much  the  text  that  he  mastered  as  the 
doctrines  it  contained,  and  yet  he  never  traveled  out- 
side the  Scripture  which  he  announced  as  the  found- 
ation of  his  thoughts.  The  great  cardinal  truths  of 
Christianity  were  perfectly  familiar  to  him,  and  he 
never  failed  to  pursue  such  as  the  text  suggested  with 
signal  ability.  The  doctrines  of  the  fall  of  man  and 
the  depravity  consequent  upon  it,  not  as  taught  by 
some  modern  theologians,  but  as  set  forth  in  the 
Bible — the  atonement,  justification  by  faith,  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit,  and  Christian  perfection — were 
prominent  in  his  sermons,  while  he  often  dwelt  on 
the  loss  of  the  soul  and  the  reward  of  the  blessed. 
We  have  seen  him  ofttimes  in  the  deepest  study, 
seemingly  oblivious  to  every  thing  around  him,  pre- 
vious to  entering  the  pulpit,  but  never  saw  him  write 
a  line  preparatory  to  the  task  before  him  ;  and  never, 
upon  any  occasion,  have  we  heard  him  preach  with 
either  manuscript  or  note  in  sight.  He  seemed  to 


128  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

trust  to  his  familiarity  with  the  questions  to  be  dis- 
cussed and  to  the  inspiration  the  occasion  might 
impart.  In  presenting  the  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
as  taught  by  Mr.  Wesley,  he  had  scarcely  an  equal 
anywhere,  and  in  defending  them  no  one  surpassed 
him.  He  but  seldom  in  the  pulpit  confined  himself 
within  the  limits  of  an  hour,  and  often  preached 
nearly  twice  that  time.  His  language  was  well 
chosen,  always  chaste,  sometimes  beautiful.  Com- 
mencing at  the  mountain's  base,  he  would  linger  for 
a  while  amid  the  lowlands,  and  then  begin  the  ascent, 
pausing  along  its  rock-ribbed  sides,  and  then  climb- 
ing to  its  loftiest  heights,  he  would  for  a  moment  rest 
his  wing  and  then  soar  upwards  until  he  seemed  to 
push  ajar  the  gates  of  heaven.  He  would  look  upon 
the  fadeless  glories  and  glittering  splendors  of  the 
beautiful  city,  and  then  return  to  tell  of  its  songs  of 
triumph,  of  its  shouts  of  praise,  and  of  the  millions 
who  walk  over  its  burnished  plains.  With  a  match- 
less voice,  his  enunciation  clear  and  distinct,  he  but 
seldom  failed  to  carry  his  audience  with  him  to  the 
transcendent  heights  where  he  loved  to  linger. 

In  1831  he  was  stationed  in  Bardstown  and 
Springfield,  where  he  had  preached  in  1825  and  1826, 
at  which  time  they  were  included  in  the  Salt  .River 
Circuit. 

The  society  in  Bardstown,  as  we  ^have  already 
seen,  was  organized  by  him.  During  the  four  years 
he  had  been  absent  the  Church  had  acquired  but  little 
additional  numerical  strength.  There  was  a  member- 
ship of  only  twenty-five  white  and  thirty-five  colored 
members.  At  Springfield  the  outlook  was  no  more 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  129 

favorable,  the  membership  not  being  equal  to  that  iii 
Bardstown. 

The  overshadowing  influence  of  Romanism  in  both 
these  communities  was  well  calculated  to  impair  the 
energy  and  to  dampen  the  zeal  of  a  preacher  less  ear- 
nest in  his  work  than  he  who  had  been  chosen  to  the 
task  of  establishing  the  truth  in  these  fortresses,  of 
error.  His  ministry  among  the  people,  while  travel- 
ing the  Salt  River  Circuit,  had  greatly  endeared  him 
to  them,  and  hence  he  entered  upon  the  discharge  of 
his  duties  under  favorable  circumstances.  During  the 
period  of  his  absence  his  improvement  in  the  pulpit 
was  very  apparent.  Instead  of  the  timid  youth,  they 
beheld  the  firm,  yet  modest,  man  grappling  with  the 
most  difficult  theological  questions,  and  showing  him- 
self the  master  of  every  situation.  Roman  Catholi- 
cism, bold  and  defiant,  the  growth  of  centuries,  pro- 
tected by  her  institutions  of  learning  and  her  crafty 
priesthood,  failing  to  daunt  his  noble  spirit,  felt  the 
shock  of  his  strong  arm.  Studying  the  birth  and 
growth  of  that  system  of  error,  he  unmasked  it  and 
held  it  up  in  all  its  hideousness,  both  in  Bardstown 
and  Springfield,  excusing  nothing,  showing  the  enor- 
mities that  had  followed  in  its  path,  until  he 
checked  it  in  its  progress;  and,  although  feeling  the 
stunning  blows  he  wielded,  such  was  the  suavity  of 
his  manners  that  even  the  priests  respected  the  hand 
that  dealt  them. 

At  the  session  ot  the  conference  he  had  been 
elected  as  a  representative  of  that  body  to  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  a  distinction  but  seldom  conferred  on 
so  young  a  man.  The  General  Conference  was  held 


130  LTFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

in  Philadelphia,  commencing  May  1st.  His  duties  as 
a  delegate  to  that  body  encroached  somewhat  upon 
his  work  as  a  pastor,  as  it  rendered  necessary  an  ab- 
sence of  several  weeks.  His  colleagues  in  the  dele- 
gation from  Kentucky  were  Peter  Akers,  Martin 
Ruter,  Jonathan  Stamper,  Benjamin  T.  Crouch,  Will- 
iam Adams,  Marcus  Lindsey,  G.  "VV.  Taylor,  Richard 
Tydings,  Henry  B.  Bascom,  Joseph  S.  Tomlinson, 
John  Tevis,  George  McNelly. 

No  question  was  brought  before  the  body  to  call 
out  the  commanding  powers  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  on  the 
floor  of  the  conference,  but  in  the  pulpit  he  shone 
with  resplendent  luster. 

Before  leaving  for  the  General  Conference,  he 
held  a  meeting  in  Bardstown,  which  considerably 
increased  the  membership  of  the  Church.  Immedi- 
ately after  his  return  he  commenced  a  meeting  in 
Springfield,  which  was  protracted  through  several 
weeks,  resulting  in  many  conversions  and  additions 
to  the  Church.  At  both  these  meetings  he  had  the 
assistance  of  his  in'timate  friend,  Marcus  Lindsey. 

From  Bardstown  we  go  with  him  to  Frankfort, 
the  capital  of  the  State.  The  Church  in  that  city 
was  organized  by  Richard  Corwine,  in  1822,  and  was 
included  for  several  years  in  the  Shelby  Circuit.  In 
1826  it  was  detached  from  that  charge  and  associated 
with  the  village  of  Newcastle,  and  served  by  Benja- 
min T.  Crouch.  Since  1827  it  had  been  a  separate 
charge,  while  the  preachers  who  had  occupied  the 
pulpit  were  among  the  most  gifted  in  the  conference — 
Stevenson,  Light,  Dyche,  Crouch,  and  Duke  had  suc- 
cessively served  that  Church. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUCH.  131 

Frankfort  offered  a  favorable  opportunity  for  be- 
coming better  known  throughout  the  commonwealth 
than  Mr.  Kavanaugh  had  previously  enjoyed.  The 
meeting  of  the  State  Legislature  brought  to  the  city 
not  only  the  members  of  that  body,  but  politicians 
and  distinguished  gentlemen  from  every  portion  of 
Kentucky  usually  came  to  Frankfort  during  the  ses- 
sion. In  attending  public  worship  they  generally 
sought  the  Church  where  the  pulpit  was  filled  by  the 
ablest  preacher.  The  Methodist  Church,  of  course, 
was  the  center  of  attraction.  The  witchery  of  his  elo- 
quence, the  charms  of  his  oratory,  the  grand  truths 
he  presented,  and  the  zeal  with  which  he  pleaded 
with  men  to  be  saved,  won  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
Crowded  audiences  waited  upon  his  ministry,  while 
many  caught  the  words  of  life  from  his  lips.  No 
previous  year  had  the  Church  enjoyed  such  prosper- 
ity, nor  had  Methodism  attained  to  a  position  so 
commanding. 

Kentucky  Conference  this  year  sustained  a  heavy 
loss  in  the  death  of  Barnabas  McHenry,  and  of  Mar- 
cus Lindsey. 

Barnabas  McHenry,  the  son  of  John  McHenry, 
was  born  December  6,  1767,  in  the  State  of  North 
Carolina.*  When  Barnabas  was  about  eight  years  of 
age  his  father  removed  to  Washington  County,  Vir- 
ginia. He  made  a  profession  of  religion  when  only 

*  Dr.  Abel  Stevens  says,  in  the  third  volume  of  his  "  History 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  "  (p.  293),  that  Barnabas  Mc- 
Henry u  was  liorn  December  10, 1707,  in  Eastern  Virginia."  The 
time  and  place  above  given  of  his  birth  is  on  the  authority  of  a 
letter  to  the  author  from  his  grandson,  Hon.  John  H.  McHenry, 
of  Owensboro,  Kentucky,  who  copied  for  us. 


132  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

fifteen  years  old  and  joined  the  Methodist  Church,  and 
in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  age  entered  on  his  itin- 
erant career.  His  first  appointment  was  to  the  Yadkin 
Circuit,  in  North  Carolina.  He  spent  the  subsequent 
year  in  Kentucky,  probably  in  the  Lexington  Circuit, 
to  which  Peter  Massie  had  been  appointed,  though  his 
name  appears  in  connection  with  the  Cumberland. 

In  a  letter  to  one  of  the  pioneer  preachers,  Mr. 
McHenry  says :  "  Soon  after  I  reached  the  Kentucky 
settlement — which  was  on  the  llth  of  June,  1788 — 
Brother  Haw  formed  the  design  of  placing  me  on  Cum- 
berland Circuit,  to  which  he  then  intended  to  accom- 
pany me,  and  make  a  short  stay;  but,  before  he  had 
executed  his  purpose,  he  was  superseded  by  Brother 
Poythress.  The  consequence  was  that  brothers  Haw 
and  Massie  went  to  Cumberland,  and  I  continued  in 
Kentucky  that  year,  according  to  the  original  inten- 
tion of  that  appointment.  Brother  Haw,  it  would 
seem,  communicated  his  arrangements  previous  to  the 
printing  of  the  Minutes,  which  occasioned  my  name  to 
be  inserted  as  appointed  to  the  Cumberland  Circuit." 

The  next  year  (1789)  he  was  appointed  to  Danville 
Circuit,  with  Peter  Massie  for  his  colleague. 

The  personal  appearance  of  Mr.  McHenry  was  com- 
manding, his  manners  attractive,  his  intellect  of  the 
highest  order,  and  his  voice  strong  and  well-trained. 
Soundly  converted  in  early  life,  he  consecrated  him- 
self to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  Regarding  Method- 
ism as  the  best  exponent  of  Christianity,  he  devoted 
his  noble  life  to  the  vindication  of  its  heavenly  truths. 
With  Kentucky  Methodism  he  was  destined  to  become 
intimately  identified,  and  in  the  formation  of  its  char- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGII.  133 

actcr  to  take  a  conspicuous  part.  By  the  probity  of 
his  life,  his  sterling  integrity,  his  invincible  purpose 
to  make  every  thing  subservient  to  his  religious  obli- 
gations, as  well  as  by  the  power  he  displayed  in  the 
pulpit,  he  wielded  an  influence  for  the  cause  of  truth 
that  is  now  deeply  engraven  in  the  hearts  of  the  Church, 
though  he  has  passed  away.  His  contemporaries  speak 
of  him  in  terms  of  highest  praise.  Rev.  Jacob  Young, 
in  his  "Autobiography,"  in  speaking  of  meeting,  on 
one  occasion,  with  several  Kentucky  gentlemen  of  dis- 
tinction, says :  "  The  most  distinguished  man  I  met 
was  Barnabas  McHenry.  I  may  truly  say  he  was  a 
man  by  himself."  Rev.  Lewis  Garrett,*  referring  to 
his  death,  says :  "  In  him  the  Church  lost  a  tried  and 
able  minister,  and  the  cause  of  Christianity  an  efficient 
and  firm  advocate;"  and,  in  later  years,  Dr.  Bascom,f 
who*  never  bestowed  undue  praise  on  either  the  living 
or  the  dead,  said  :  "  His  preaching  was  mainly  expos- 
itory and  didactic.  The  whole  style  of  his  preaching 
denoted  the  confidence  of  history  and  experience.  All 
seemed  to  be  real  and  personal  to  him.  The  perfect 
simplicity,  and  yet  clear,  discriminating  accuracy  of 
his  manner  and  language,  made  the  impression  that 
he  was  speaking  only  of  what  he  knew  to  be  true.  He 
spoke  of  every  thing  as  of  a  natural  scene  before  him. 
There  was  an  intensity  of  conception,  a  sustained  sen- 
timent of  personal  interest,  which  gave  one  a  feeling 
of  wonder  and  awe  in  listening  to  him.  You  could 
not  doubt  his  right  to  guide  and  teach.  One  felt  how 
safe  and  proper  it  was  to  follow  such  leading.  His 

*"  Biographical  Sketches,"  p.  30- 

t  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  iii,  pp.  421,  422. 


134  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

style  was  exceedingly  rich,  without  being  showy.  There 
was  no  effervescence.  It  was  not  the  garden  and  land- 
scape in  bloom,  but  in  early  bud,  giving  quiet  but  sure 
indication  of  fruit  and  foliag<*.  His  language  was  al- 
ways accurate,  well  chosen,  strong,  and  clear.  All  his 
sermons,  as  delivered,  were  in  this  respect  fit  for  the 
press — not  only  remarkably  free  from  error  on  the 
score  of  thought,  but  from  defect  and  fault  of  style 
and  language.  His  whole  manner,  too,  was  natural, 
dignified,  and  becoming.  Good  taste  and  sound  judg- 
ment were  his  main  mental  characteristics.  Of  im- 
agination proper  he  had  but  little,  and  still  less  of 
fancy.  Reason,  fitness,  and  beauty  were  the  percep- 
tions by  which  he  was  influenced.  The  intrinsic  value 
of  things  alone  attracted  him.  The  outward  show  of 
things  made  little  or  no  impression  upon  him  under 
any  circumstances.  The  inner  man — the  hidden  things 
of  the  heart — controlled  him  in  all  his  judgments  and 
preferences." 

Although  the  General  Minutes  announce  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Rev.  Barnabas  McHeury  to  the  Cum- 
berland Circuit  in  1788,  he  did  not  take  charge  of 
this  work  until  1791.  This  year  he  leaves  Kentucky, 
to  cultivate  "  Immanuel's  lands  "  elsewhere. 

During  the  three  years  of  his  absence  from  Ken- 
tucky his  labors  were  abundant.  The  first  was  spent 
on  the  Cumberland  Circuit ;  the  second  as  presiding 
elder  over  the  Holston,  Green,  New  River,  and  Rus- 
sell Circuits,  spreading  over  a  vast  extent  of  territory 
in  Virginia  and  Tennessee;  the  third  as  the  presiding 
elder  over  the  Bedford,  Botetourt,  Greenbrier,  and 
Cow  Pasture  Circuits,  in  Western  Virginia.  In  1794 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGE.  135 

he  returns  to  Kentucky,  and  is  appointed  to  the  Salt 
River  Circuit — the  most  laborious  in  the  conference. 
During  this  year  he  was  married  to  Miss  Sarah  Har- 
din,  daughter  of  Colonel  John  Hardin;  and,  at  the 
close  of  the  year,  located,  and,  in  that  sphere,  for  many 
years  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  Church. 

In  1819  he  was  readmitted  into  the  traveling  con- 
nection, but  after  two  years  in  the  effective  ranks  he 
was  placed  on  the  list  of  superannuated  preachers, 
where  he  remained  until  called  to  his  reward. 

Among  the  noble  men  who  battled  for  the  cause 
of  God  in  the  West,  no  one  had  borne  himself  more 
gallantly  than  did  Barnabas  McHenry.  Panoplied 
with  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  familiar  with  the  doc- 
trines of  which  he  was  a  fearless  and  able  advocate, 
his  sword  gleamed  in  the  sunlight  on  almost  every 
hill-top  and  in  every  valley  in  Central  Kentucky. 
The  days  of  his  active  service,  however,  had  keen 
numbered;  yet,  unwilling  to  repose  amid  the  trophies 
he  had  won,  or  the  laurels  he  had  gathered  on  so  many 
hard-fought  fields,  we  find  him  contributing  his  re- 
maining energies  to  the  advancement  and  progress  of 
the  cause  which  had  been  the  cherished  object  of  his 
life.  His  conduct  was  a  comment  on  the  religion  he 
professed.  He  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  sanctification, 
and  died  of  cholera,  in  triumph,  on  the  16th  of  June, 
1833. 

Among  the  names  that  were  prominent  in  the 
Methodist  ministry  in  Kentucky  whom  we  can  first 
remember,  that  of  Marcus  Lindsey  ranked  high.  He 
was  born  in  Ireland,  December  26,  1787,  but  came  to 
America  with  his  parents  when  about  ten  years  of 


136  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

age.*  His  father  settled  in  Kentucky,  on  Licking 
River,  near  Leach's  Station,  where  he  remained  until 
the  Indians  disappeared  from  the  State,  when  he  re- 
moved to  a  farm  on  the  road  from  Newport  to  Fal- 
mouth,  about  seven  miles  from  the  former  place.  The 
mother  of  Marcus  Lindsey  was  a  member  of  the  Bap- 
tist Church,  and  was  endowed  with  a  superior  intel- 
lect; her  mind  was  richly  stored  with  knowledge,  and 
she  was  distinguished  for  her  enlarged  and  liberal 
views  in  reference  to  other  Christian  communions. 

Favored  with  educational  facilities  enjoyed  by  but 
few  young  men  of  his  day,  and  blessed  with  a  great 
mind,  it  had  been  his  own  purpose — added  to  the 
wishes  of  his  family — to  prepare  for  the  bar.  His 
legal  attainments  were  sufficient  for  him  to  have  en- 
tered upon  the  practice  of  law,  with  flattering  pros- 
pects of  success  before  him.  About  the  time  he  had 
completed  his  studies  he  was  awakened,  under  the 
Methodist  ministry,  to  a  sense  of  his  condition  as  a 
sinner,  and  sought  and  obtained  mercy.  He  soon 
became  impressed  that  the  path  of  duty  invited  him 
to  a  higher  and  nobler  work — the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel.  Brought  up  in  the  lap  of  plenty,  he  entered 
the  conference  when  he  knew  that  sacrifices  and  suf- 
fering would  confront  him  at  every  step.  Listening 
only  to  the  voice  of  duty,  he  faltered  not.  On  one 
hand,  there  were  spread  out  before  him  the  evergreen 
fields  of  wealth,  of  honor,  of  ease ;  on  the  other,  a  life 
of  toil,  of  privation,  of  want,  presented  itself  to  his 
view;  but  "he  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood," 

*  Letter  to  the  author  from  Hon.  T.  W.  Lindsey,  of  Frank- 
fort, Ky. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGIL  137 

but  "chose  rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people 
of  God,  because  he  had  respect  to  the  recompense  of 
the  reward." 

At  the  conference  of  1810  he  became  an  itinerant 
and  was  appointed  to  the  Hartford  Circuit,  with  the 
sweet-spirited  Blackman  for  his  presiding  elder.  In 
1811  he  was  sent  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to 
the  hardy  settlers  along  the  waters  of  Sandy  River. 
In  1812  he  was  appointed  to  the  Little  Sandy,  when 
he  formed  that  circuit.  The  hardships  endured  by 
the  missionary  in  that  mountain  region,  seventy 
years  ago,  can  scarcely  now  be  conceived  of  by  us. 
Mr.  Lindsey  murmured  not.  If  he  swam  the  swollen 
streams,  amid  the  piercing  winds  of  Winter,  or  slept 
on  the  snow-carpeted  earth  —  as  he  often  did  —  he 
uttered  no  complaint.  He  had  put  his  hand  to  the 
plow  and  dared  not  look  back.  A  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel  had  been  committed  to  him,  and  whether  his 
mission  led  him  to  the.  homes  of  want  or  the  mansions 
of  wealth,  he  faithfully  discharged  his  duty. 

At  the  conference  of  1813  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Union  Circuit,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  the  following 
year  to  the  Marietta,  where  he  remained  for  two  years. 
In  these  fields  of  labor  his  ministry  was  greatly 
blessed;  hundreds  were  added  to  the  Church.  Among 
the  many  brought  to  Christ  through  his  instrumental- 
ity, while  traveling  the  Marietta  Circuit,  was  John 
Stewart,  a  colored  man,  "who  went  out  as  the  first 
missionary  among  the  Wyandotte  Indians.  Stewart 
had  been  a  very  dissipated  man,  and,  in  one  of  his 
drunken  fits  of  delirium  tremens,  he  had  started  to 
the  Ohio  River  to  drown  himself.  On  his  way  he  had 

12 


138  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

to  pass  by  the  place  where  Lindsey  was  holding  meet- 
ing. Being  attracted  by  the  sound — for  Methodist 
preachers  generally  cry  aloud  and  spare  not — he  drew 
up  and  stood  by  the  door,  where  he  could  distinctly 
hear  all  that  was  said.  The  preacher  was  describing 
the  lost  sinner's  condition,  his  exposedness  to  death 
and  hell;  and  then  he  presented  the  offers  of  mercy, 
showing  that  Jesus  died  for  all,  and  the  worst  of  sin- 
ners might  repent  and  find  pardon.  It  was  a  message 
of  mercy  to  that  poor,  forlorn,  and  ruined  soul.  It 
turned  his  feet  from  the  way  of  death  to  the  path  of 
life.  He  returned  to  his  place,  and  falling  upon  his 
knees  he  cried  for  mercy.  God  heard  the  poor  Ethi- 
opian's prayer.  While  piteously  he  pleaded  for  mercy, 
salvation  came  to  his  heart.  At  the  next  meeting  he 
was  found  at  the  church,  sitting  in  the  back  corner, 
but  clothed,  and  in  his  right  mind.  When  the  invi- 
tation was  given  to  persons  to  join  the  Church  he 
went  forward,  and  the  preacher  received  him,  and  in- 
structed him  more  perfectly  in  the  way  of  the  Lord. 
He  had  received  some  education  and  was  enabled  to 
read  and  write.  Like  most  of  his  brethren  of  the 
African  race,  he  was  an  admirable  singer,  possessing 
a  voice  of  unusual  sweetness  and  power,  and  he  took 
great  delight  in  singing  the  hymns  and  spiritual  songs 
of  the  Church.  Some  time  after  his  conversion  he 
became  greatly  exercised  on  the  subject  of  preaching. 
So  intense  and  all-absorbing  became  his  thoughts  on 
the  subject,  that  he  could  neither  eat  nor  sleep.  He 
was  continually  engaged  in  reading  the  Bible  and  in 
prayer  for  weeks.  His  long  fasting  and  almost  cease- 
less vigils  were  broken  by  a  vision  which  he  told  us 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  139 

came  to  him  one  night.  Whether  awake  or  asleep  he 
could  not  say,  but  in  the  transition  he  heard  a  voice 
distinctly  saying,  'You  must  go  in  a  north-westerly 
direction,  to  the  Indian  Nation,  and  tell  the  savage 
tribes  of  Christ,  your  Savior/  He  had  this  vision  for 
three  successive  nights. 

"It  is  said  that  dreams  indicate  the  mind's  anxi- 
eties, and  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  things  which 
engross  the  mind  by  day  continue  to  occupy  it  by 
night — at  least  so  far  as  to  give  a  bent  and  coloring 
to  the  thoughts  when  the  outward  senses  are  locked 
up  in  sleep.  This  being  the  case,  then,  from  the  fact 
that  Stewart  was  greatly  exercised  on  the  subject  of 
preaching,  we  may  be  led  to  infer  that  his  vision  or 
dream  was  but  a  part  of  his  call  to  preach  the  Gospel. 
The  only  thing  wonderful  and  extraordinary  in  the 
dream,  is  the  specific  nature  of  the  call,  designating, 
as  Paul's  vision  of  the  man  of  Macedonia,  the  very 
place  to  which  he  should  go.  Now  that  revelation  is 
exhausted,  and  the  Bible  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  finality 
on  all  subjects  pertaining  to  belief  and  duty,  we  have 
but  little  faith  in  dreams  or  ' spiritual  communications' 
so-called,  as  constituting  any  part  of  the  rule  of  faith 
or  practice.  The  sure  '  word  of  prophecy,'  which 
God  has  given  us,  will,  if  understood  and  followed, 
guide  us  into  all  the  ways  of  truth  and  righteousness. 

"Stewart  was  poor  and  destitute  of  friends,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Methodists,  who  received  and 
treated  him  as  a  brother ;  but,  even  among  his  breth- 
ren, who  could  he  get,  by  any  possibility,  to  believe 
that  he  was  called  to  go  on  a  mission  to  proaHi  the 
Gospel  to  the  Indians?  Firmly  impressed,  however, 


140  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

with  the  belief  that  the  dispensation  of  the  Gospel 
had  been  committed  to  him,  he  made  all  the  prepara- 
tion his  circumstances  would  allow,  and,  with  his 
Bible  and  hymn-book,  started  out,  not  knowing 
whither  he  was  going,  save  that  the  vision  directed 
him  to  the  north-west.  Abraham,  when  called  from 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  had,  doubtless,  much  greater 
faith  when  he  entered  upon  his  journey  than  this 
sable  son  of  Ham,  but  there  was  not  less  uncertainty 
in  regard  to  the  unknown  destination.  Stewart  con- 
tinued his  travels ;  and  hearing  of  the  Delaware  In- 
dians on  the  Muskingum,  he  directed  his  course 
thitherward.  When  he  arrived  among  them,  he  com- 
menced singing  and  praying,  and  exhorting,  but  it 
was  in  an  unknown  tongue.  The  peaceful  Indians 
gazed  upon  the  dark  stranger  with  silent  wonder,  but 
were  not  moved  by  his  tears  and  entreaties.  Being 
impressed  that  this  was  not  the  tribe  to  which  he  was 
called,  he  hurried  on.  After  a  fatiguing  journey,  he 
arrived  at  Pipetown,  on  the  Sandusky  River,  where 
he  found  a  large  concourse  of  Indians  engaged  in 
feasting  and  dancing.  They  were  in  the  very  midst 
of  their  Avildest  mirth  and  revelry  when  he  appeared 
among  them.  Being  a  dark  mulatto,  he  attracted 
their  attention,  and  they  gathered  around  him,  and 
asked  him  to  drink  of  their  fire-water;  but  he  too 
well  knew  the  fatal  effects  of  the  deadly  draught  to 
allow  it  to  pass  his  lips.  At  this  refusal  the  Indians 
became  angry,  and  were  beginning  to  manifest  signs 
of  hostility  ;  but  he  commenced,  in  a  clear,  melodious 
voice,  singing  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion.  Its  strains 
rose  above  the  din  and  uproar  of  the  multitude. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  141 

They  were  strangely  enchanting,  and,  like  the  voice 
of  Jesus  on  stormy  Galilee,  they  calmed  the  tumult 
of  passion  which  threatened  his  destruction.  The 
war-dance  and  song  ceased ;  the  multitude  gathered 
around  him,  and  hung  upon  his  lips  in  breathless 
silence,  as  if  enchanted  by  the  sound.  When  he 
ceased,  he  fell  upon  his  knees,  and  poured  out  his 
heart  to  God  in  prayer  for  their  salvation.  There 
stood  by  him  an  old  chief  who  understood  his  lan- 
guage, and,  as  word  after  word  escaped  his  lips,  he 
interpreted  it  to  the  listening  hundreds.  When  his 
prayer  was  ended,  he  arose  and  exhorted  them  to  turn 
away  from  their  drunken  revelry  and  Indian  cere- 
monies, to  the  worship  of  the  true  and  living  God, 
assuring  them  that  if  they  continued  in  this  course 
they  would  be  forever  lost.  As  the  earnest  entreaties 
of  the  colored  preacher  were  communicated  by  the 
old  chief,  many  were  deeply  impressed  with  the  truths 
which  he  uttered,  and  the  work  of  God  might  have* 
then  and  there  at  once  commenced,  but  for  the  inter- 
ference of  Captain  Pipe,  the  head  chief,  who  became 
violently  enraged,  and,  brandishing  his  tomahawk, 
swore  if  he  did  not  cease  he  would  kill  him  on  the 
spot.  John  ceased  his  exhortation,  and  turned  with 
a  sorrowful  heart  away.  Being  ordered  to  leave  im- 
mediately, on  pain  of  death,  he  again  started  out 
upon  his  journey,  and,  guided  by  an  invisible  hand, 
he  went  to  Upper  Saudusky.  Here  he  found  another 
band  of  Indians,  and  among  them  a  black  man  named 
Jonathan  Painter,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  by 
them  at  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Kanawha,  in  Virginia, 
when  a  boy.  He  was  a  good  interpreter.  With  this 


142  LIFE  AND    TIAfES  OF 

man  he  soon  became  intimate,  and  procuring  his  serv- 
ices, he  went  with  him  to  attend  a  great  Indian  festi- 
val. When  he  arrived,  he  begged  permission  to  speak 
to  the  assembled  multitude,  but  they  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  his  request.  He  still  pleaded  for  the  privi- 
lege, for  his  heart  burned  to  tell  the  wandering  sav- 
age of  Jesus  and  his  love.  After  much  entreaty, 
through  his  interpreter,  they  agreed  to  let  him  speak 
to  them  the  next  day.  The  time  and  place  of  meet- 
ing were  fixed,  and  when  Stewart,  with  his  interpre- 
ter, appeared,  how  was  his  heart  chilled  and  discour- 
aged only  to  find  one  old  Indian,  by  the  name  of  Big 
Tree,  and  an  old  Indian  woman,  called  Mary !  To 
these,  however,  he  preached  Christ  and  the  resurrec- 
tion. God  attended  his  word ;  and  though  small  and 
feeble  was  the  beginning,  yet  the  labors  of  Stewart 
were  blessed.  He  continued  to  hold  forth,  as  oppor- 
tunity favored,  the  word  of  life  to  the  Wyandottes, 
and  as  the  product  of  so  feeble  an  instrumentality, 
the  mission  to  the  Wyandottes  was  established  by  the 
Church."  * 

After  an  absence  of  three  years,  Mr.  Lindsey  re- 
turned to  Kentucky,  and  was  elevated  to  the  respon- 
sible position  of  presiding  elder,  in  which  he  remained 
until  the  last  year  of  his  life.  He  spent,  at  different 
times,  five  years  on  the  Salt  River  District,  three 
years  on  the  Green  River,  four  years  on  the  Ken- 
tucky, one  on  the  Ohio,  and  three  on  the  Cumber- 
laud  District. 

Possessed  of  indomitable  energy  and  untiring  zeal, 
his  mission  divine,  and  his  heart  and  herculean  fac- 

t Finley's  "Sketches,"  pp.  388-392. 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  1 43 

nltios  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God,  his  entrance 
upon  the  work  of  the  ministry  was  welcomed  by  the 
Church,  and  his  career  was  destined  to  be  brilliant. 
Early  morn  found  him  in  his  study  investigating  the 
great  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  a  few  years  he  be- 
came eminent  among  his  brethren.  His  person  com-' 
manding,  his  manners  prepossessing,  his  voice  strong, 
full,  and  musical,  and  familiar  with  all  the  doctrines 
of  the  Word  of  God,  he  wielded  a  mighty  influence 
for  good  wherever  he  went,  and  he  went  almost 
everywhere  throughout  Kentucky.  The  labors  of 
his  noble  life  were  spent  principally  on  large  and  ex- 
tensive districts,  for  which  he  was  well  qualified. 
Thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  government  of  the 
Church,  an  executive  officer  of  high  rank,  with  pulpit 
abilities  scarcely  equaled — with  a  zeal  that  was  almost 
boundless,  a  fine  singer,  powerful  in  exhortation  and 
prayer,  and  devoted  to  the  exercises  of  the  altar,  his 
quarterly  meetings  were  at  once  invested  with  the 
highest  importance. 

Mr.  Lindsey  was  styled  a  doctrinal  preacher.  No 
man  was  more  familiar  with  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  than  he,  and  all  who  knew  him  ranked  him 
among  the  ablest  polemics  of  the  day.  In  contro- 
versy, he  indulged  not  in  those  asperities  which  so 
often  dishonor  the  pulpit  when  opposing  the  views 
of  others;  but,  "with  thoughts  that  breathe  and 
words  that  burn,"  the  weapons  of  truth  wielded  by 
him  "  wore  mighty  in  pulling  down  the  strongholds 
of  error." 

The  errors  of  Calvinism,  as  well  as  the  exclusive 
views  held  by  the  immersiouists  in  regard  to  the 


144  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

subjects,  the  mode,  and  the  design  of  baptism,  dis- 
turbed the  quiet  of  the  Church  in  Mr.  Lindsey's  day ; 
but  before  the  potent  weapons  of  truth,  as  wielded 
by  him,  they  melted  away  as  melts  the  snow  before 
the  rising  sun.  He  laid  his  premises,  marshaled  his 
proofs,  and  drew  his  conclusions,  and  the  sea  of  con- 
troversy was  calm.  He  was  also  an  excellent  practi- 
cal preacher;  in  fact,  he  excelled  in  every  department 
of  ministerial  work.  Beneath  the  rich  and  pathetic 
appeals  that  fell  from  his  lips  sinners  saw  "the  ex- 
ceeding sinfulness  of  sin,"  and  turned  to  God. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1832  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Shelby ville*  and  Brick  Chapel  Station.  The  appear- 
ance of  the  Asiatic  cholera  in  the  Old  World  awakened 
fearful  apprehensions  in  the  minds  of  many  in  this 
country;  and  as  its  march  shortened  the  distance  be- 
tween it  and  the  United  States,  the  stories  of  its 
fearful  ravages  blanched  many  a  countenance  with 
terror.  From  the  time  that  Mr.  Lindsey  first  heard 
of  this  fearful  scourge,  he  entertained  the  thought 
that  he  would  be  numbered  among  its  victims.  In 
September  of  1832  it  made  its  appearance  in  the  city 
of  Louisville.  At  the  conference  held  in  Harrods- 
burg,  in  October,  1832,  the  presiding  bishop  proposed 
to  appoint  him  to  Louisville.  The  long  and  valuable 

*  It  was  during  his  pastoral  oversight  of  the  Church  in  that 
lovely  village  that  I  first  made  his  acquaintance.  I  was  then 
a  child.  During  a  protracted  illness  of  my  father  his  visits 
were  frequent  to  our  house.  His  pious  counsels,  and  earnest 
prayers  in  behalf  of  my  father,  not  then  converted,  as  well  as 
the  kind  admonitions  he  gave  to  me,  greatly  endeared  him  to 
our  family,  and  made  a  lasting  impression  on  my  young 
heart. — A  UTHOK. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  145 

services  of  Mr.  Lindsey  to  the  Church  made  it  proper 
that  he  should  be  consulted  in  reference  to  his  ap- 
pointment. Willing  as  he  had  always  been  to  accept 
any  position  assigned  him,  while  he  offered  no  serious 
resistance  to  the  appointment  that  had  been  suggested, 
he  expressed  a  preference  for  Shelbyville,  and  offered 
as  the  reason  that  he  had  strange  apprehensions  in 
reference  to  the  cholera,  and  that  Shelbyville  had  not 
been  and  would  not  probably  be  visited  by  it. 

He  entered  upon  his  work  at  Shelbyville  with  a 
zeal  seldom  equaled,  and  never  surpassed.  Immense 
crowds  flocked  to  his  ministry,  and  received  the  Gos- 
pel from  his  lips.  If  he  vindicated  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  error  paled  and  trembled  before  the 
power  of  truth  ;  if  infidelity  met  his  withering  glance, 
it  stood  speechless,  and  offered  no  resistance;  if  he 
made  his  appeals  to  the  ungodly,  and  told  them  of 
their  doom,  Sinai  trembled  to  its  base,  while  we  al- 
most heard  the  thunder  of  Jehovah's  anger,  or  saw 
the  lightning's  vivid  flash,  and  the  home  of  the  lost. 
If  he  dwelt  on  the  rewards  of  the  blessed,  the  crown 
of  immortality  appeared  in  view.  In  his  pastoral 
labors  he  visited  the  homes  of  wealth,  and  sought  out 
the  places  of  poverty,  affliction,  and  sorrow;  while  he 
did  not  neglect  the  rich,  yet  among  the  poor  of  his 
charge  he  was  constantly  found,  ministering  to  their 
comfort,  kneeling  around  their  humble  altars,  and 
offering  to  them  the  sweet  consolations  of  the  cross. 
The  whole  community  admired,  honored,  loved  Mar- 
cus Lindsey. 

The  family  of  Mr.  Lindsey  did  not  remove  with 

him  to  Shelbyville,  but  remained  on  his  farm  in  Wash- 

13 


146  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ington  County,  about  fifty  miles  from  his  charge.  The 
Summer  of  1833  will  long  be  remembered  in  Ken- 
tucky. The  fearful  cholera  had  come,  "and  the  angel 
of  death  had  spread  his  wings  on  the  blast,"  and  from 
city,  village,  and  hamlet  went  up  the  melancholy  wail 
of  sorrow;  many  hearts  were  burdened,  and  many 
tears  bedewed  the  cheeks  of  weeping  ones  bereft  of 
those  they  loved.  The  impression  that  he  would  fall 
by  the  scourge  was  so  fastened  upon  his  mind  that 
nothing  could  efface  it.  In  the  month  of  February, 
before  his  death,  he  wrote  on  one  of  the  inside  doors 
of  his  family  room,  in  a  bold,  strong  hand,  which  can 
yet  be  read,  "  I  shall  die  with  cholera  in  the  Summer 
or  Fall  of  1833,"  arid  then  signed  his  name.* 

Although  more  than  fifty  years  have  elapsed,  we 
remember  his  last  sermon  to  the  Church  in  Shelby- 
ville.  The  cholera  had  reached  the  neighborhood  in 
which  his  family  resided — his  neighbors  were  dying, 
and  he  could  not  stay  away.  The  parting  scene  was 
a  sad  one.  "Duty  and  affection  call  me  to  my  home," 
said  he.  "  My  neighbors  are  dying,  with  none  to  of- 
fer them  the  consolations  of  religion,  or  to  speak 
words  of  comfort  to  the  bereaved  and  sorrowing.  I 
may  see  you  no  more,  and  think  I  will  not;  but  I 
commend  you  to  God,  and  bid  you  farewell."  His 
words  were  few — the  entire  audience  \vas  in  tears. 

On  his  arrival  at  home  all  he  had  heard  was  fully 
realized ;  the  scourge  was  passing  through  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  the  rude  foot-prints  of  death  were  to 
be  seen  all  around — and  yet  there  was  no  abatement. 

*  Letter  to  the  author  from  Mr.  Lindsey's  daughter,  Mrs. 
Catherine  H.  Wilson,  of  Lebanon,  Ky. 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  147 

If  Mr.  Lindsey,  iu  view  of  his  presentiments,  had 
been  cautious  when  danger  was  afar  off,  now  it  was 
at  hand  he  threw  off  all  reserve,  and  met  each  oft- 
recurring  peril  with  a  calm  and  fearless  intrepidity. 
As  an  angel  of  mercy,  he  passed  through  the  com- 
munity by  day  and  by  night,  visiting  the  sick,  pray- 
ing with  the  dying,  and  pointing  their  fading  eyes  to 
the  "  land  afar  off."  Many  families  mourned  their 
loved  and  lost.  His  family,  too,  put  on  their  deepest 
weeds  of  mourning.  The  strong  arm  on  which  they 
had  leaned  was  palsied  in  death.  Marcus  Liudsey 
was  no  more ! 

Worn  down  by  his  unremitting  attentions  to  others, 
he  lived  but  a  short  time  after  he  was  attacked  by 
cholera;  but  those  few  hours  were  crowded  with  joy 
and  triumph  to  the  dying  saint.  Looking  upon  the 
little  group  around  him,  he  turned  to  his  weeping 
wife,  and  said:  "I  had  hoped  to  live  to  help  you  with 
these  little  ones,  but  God  has  called  me  home."  To 
a  little  daughter  he  said,  "My  child,  meet  me  in 
heaven."  These  were  his  last  words. 

He  is  buried  in  a  beautiful  grove  near  Thomas's 
Meeting-house,  where  his  family  worshiped  at  the 
time,  about  six  miles  from  Lebanon.  On  the  stone 
at  the  head  of  his  grave  is  the  following  inscription : 

Samfc 

TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

THE  REV.  MARCUS  LINDSEY, 

MINISTER  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  OHtTRCH. 

HE   I  I  I.I.I. li  THAT  OFFICE  TWENTY-THREE  YEARS  WITH  DIGNITY. 

HE  DIED  A  MOST  TRIUMPHANT  DEATH 

JULY  27,  1833, 
AGED  45  YEARS,  7  MONTHS,  1  DAY. 


148  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

On  the  first  day  of  the  following  September  a  ser- 
mon was  preached  on  the  occasion  of  his  death  in 
Shelbyville  to  a  large  audience  by  his  intimate  friend 
and  fellow-laborer,  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Stamper. 

The  loss  of  Mr.  Lindsey  was  deeply  felt  by  the 
Church  in  Kentucky;  for  a  great  man  had  fallen  in 
Israel,  in  the  prime  of  his  life,  and  in  the  midst  of  his 
usefulness.  He  "  was  deformed  in  both  hands  from 
his  birth.  His  right  arm  and  thumb  were  perfect, 
the  hand  small,  but  well  shaped,  with  only  two  fing- 
ers, one  large,  the  other  small,  grown  together  and 
bent  from  the  knuckles;  his  left  arm  was  deformed 
from  the  elbow;  it  was  flat,  and  two  or  three  inches 
shorter  than  the  other.  His  left  hand  was  rather 
smaller  than  the  right,  with  only  a  thumb  and  one 
finger,  both  exactly  alike;  they  were  about  two  and  a 
half  inches  long,  and  bent  at  the  knuckles  without 
nails."*  His  personal  appearance  was  commanding ;  in 
height  fully  six  feet,  of  herculean  frame,  and  weigh- 
ing over  two  hundred  pounds.  His  hair  was  black, 
his  complexion  dark,  with  a  high  forehead  and  brill- 
iant black  eyes.  His  nose  was  large  and  his  mouth 
delicately  formed.  He  was  a  member  of  every  Gen- 
eral Conference  from  the  time  of  his  eligibility  until 
his  death. 

Another  name,  that  of  Peter  Akers,  between  whom 
and  Mr.  Kavanaugh  the  most  intimate  relations  ex- 
isted, properly  belongs  to  this  chapter,  as  his  labors 
as  a  preacher  in  Kentucky  close  with  the  conference 
of  1832. 


*  Letter  to  the  author  from  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Catherine 
H.  Wilson. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  149 

Previous  to  his  conversion  he  had  studied  law, 
and  entering  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  he 
promised  to  attain  to  great  eminence  at  the  bar. 

He  had  located,  as  a  lawyer,  in  Flemingsburg, 
Kentucky.  Shortly  afterward,  on  the  12th  of  March 
1818,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Eliza  S.  Faris,  a  young 
lady  of  fine  intelligence  and  of  excellent  family,  but 
averse  to  religion.  While  attending  court  in  Pres- 
tonsburg  a  quarterly  meeting  was  held  in  the  court 
house,  where  considerable  interest  was  manifested  upon 
the  subject  of  religion.  Among  the  lawyers  who  were 
present  was  a  Mr.  Bright,  who  had  once  been  a 
preacher  or  exhorter  in  the  Baptist  Church.  At  the 
close  of  the  meeting,  on  Sunday  at  noon,  he  proposed,, 
jocularly,  to  Mr.  Akers,  that  they  should  protract  it, 
and  have  service  that  evening,  and  that  Mr.  Akers 
should  preach,  and  he,  Bright,  should  exhort.  The 
challenge  was  accepted,  but  the  exhorter  becoming 
alarmed  mounted  his  horse  in  the  afternoon. and  left; 
the  village,  while  Akers,  holding  his  ground,  assured 
any  who  inquired  that  he  would  meet  his  engagement. 

The  court  house  was  crowded  at  an  early  hour, 
and  the  greatest  excitement  prevailed.  It  was  well 
known  that  the  gifted  young  lawyer  had  made  no 
pretensions  to  religion,  and  it  was  difficult  to  believe 
that  he  would  venture  an  attempt  to  preach  the 
Gospel. 

Entering  the  room  he  walked  with  steady  step  to 
the  stand,  on  which  lay  a  hymn  book  and  Bible.  He 
read  a  hymn,  and  after  singing  prayed  most  fervently, 
and  then  announced  his  text,  "And  there  appeared  a 
great  wonder  in  heaven;  a  woman  clothed  with  the 


150  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her  head 
a  crown  of  twelve  stars."* 

For  fifteen  minutes  he  discussed  the  text  with 
marked  ingenuity  and  great  composure,  and  then 
suddenly  pausing,  his  face  suffused  with  tears,  said  : 
"  I  am  a  sinner  and  need  a  Savior.  If  there  be  any 
person  present  who  has  any  influence  at  the  throne  of 
grace  I  want  them  in  their  prayers  to  remember  poor 
Peter  Akers." 

At  a  later  period,  while  attending  the  Floyd  Cir- 
cuit Court,  he  was  present  at  a  camp-meeting,  and  a 
report — though  incorrect — had  preceded  him  to  Flem- 
ingsburg,  that  he  had  professed  religion.  Mrs.  Akers 
had  cherished  the  hope  that,  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  her  husband  would  soon  become  "  rich  and 
independent;"  and  apprehending  that  if  he  obtained 
religion  and  became  a  member  of  the  Church,  the 
path  of  duty  might  lead  him  into  a  calling  less  lucra- 
tive, she  derived  no  satisfaction  from  the  intelligence 
she  had  received.  Her  mind,  however,  soon  under- 
went a  change  on  this  subject,  and  she  became  solicit- 
ous, not  only  for  her  own  salvation,  but  also  for  that 
of  her  husband.  From  the  time  she  became  serious 
on  the  subject  of  religion  she  not  only  sought  her  own 
pardon,  but  endeavored  to  impress  upon  his  mind 
"  the  propriety  of  their  both  returning  to  God."  On 
the  22d  of  May,  1821,  she  departed  this  life.  Her 
death  was  full  of  triumph.  She  died  of  consumption. 
Her  affliction  had  been  long  and  severe,  but  no  mur- 
mur escaped  her.  She  had  sought  religion  with  ear- 
nestness, and  obtained  its  sweet  consolations.  "  I  know 

*  Revelation  xii,  1. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  151 

I  must  soon  die,  but  I  am  not  now  afraid  of  death; 
Jesus  h:\s  washed  away  all  my  sins ;  I  am  going  home 
to  Jesus."  To  her  father,  "  I  want  you  to  meet  me 
in  heaven."  These  were  among  the  expressions  she 
uttered.  When  her  strength  was  gone,  "and  death 
was  fast  sealing  her  mortal  lips  in  eternal  silence,  a 
cold  stiffness  was  fast  pervading  all  the  avenues  of 
life;  while  she  lay  calm  and  undismayed  in  the  awful 
storm  of  dissolving  nature ;  while  her  happy  soul  was 
thus  suspended  for  a  moment  between  time  and  eter- 
nity, as  if  having  a  view  of  both  worlds,  and  flutter- 
ing to  be  on  the  wing  for  that  'country  from  whose 
bourn  no  traveler  returns/  she  forced  from  her  quiv- 
ering lips  these  precious  and  consolatory  words: 
'  Glory !  this  is  the  best  time  I  have  had  yet !'  and 
yielded  up  her  spirit  without  a  struggle  or  a  groan."* 

It  was  during  her  sickness  that  Mr.  Akers  agreed 
with  her  to  spend  the  remnant  of  his  life  in  the  serv- 
ice of  God.  On  the  night  of  the  21st  of  March, 
1821,  he  and  she  had  family  prayer  by  themselves  for 
the  first  time.  In  referring  to  this  event,  Mr.  Akers 
says:  "It  was  truly  an  affecting  time;  we  had  been 
helping  each  other  for  three  years  in  the  concerns  of 
this  life,  and  were  now  in  the  prospect  of  a  speedy 
separation,  uniting  our  ardent  cries  and  petitions  at 
the  throne  of  grace  for  pardon,  sanctification,  and 
redemption."  On  the  25th  of  the  same  month  a  ser- 
mon was  preached  in  Mr.  Akers's  house  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Houston,  from  the  text,  "  How  long  halt  ye 
between  two  opinions?  If  the  Lord  be  God,  follow 
him;  but  if  Baal,  then  follow  him."  It  was  the  holy 

*Mtthodisl  Magazine,  Vol.  IV,  p.  465. 


152  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Sabbath.  At  the  close  of  the  sermon  the  invitation 
was  given  to  any  who  might  wish  to  join  the  Church, 
"  When,"  says  Mr.  Akers,  "  I  gave  him  my  hand, 
and  God  my  heart,  and  my  wife  reached  hers  from 
the  bed." 

He  had  just  passed  his  probation  in  the  Church, 
when  he  entered  the  itinerant  ranks  in  1821,  and  has 
continued  in  the  service  of  the  Church  in  the  various 
duties  assigned  him  until  the  present  time.  The  first 
eleven  years  of  his  ministry  were  devoted  to  the 
Church  in  Kentucky.  He  filled  the  most  important 
stations  in  the  State — Lexington,  Russellville,  Louis- 
ville, Danville,  and  Harrodsburg  were  among  the 
fields  he  occupied.  In  1832  he  was  transferred  to  the 
Illinois  Conference — of  which  he  is  still  a  member — 
and  soon  became  one  of  the  most  prominent  members 
in  that  body. 

He  is,  at  this  distant  period  (1884)  remembered 
in  Kentucky  with  affectionate  regard.  His  labors  as 
a  minister  of  Christ,  while  a  member  of  the  Kentucky 
Conference,  were  distinguished  by  an  uncompromising 
devotion  to  the  cause  he  had  espoused.  In  the  pulpit 
he  was  exceedingly  popular,  and  defended  the  doc- 
trines and  the  polity  of  the  Church  with  an  ability  that 
claimed  the  respect,  and  commanded  the  confidence, 
of  his  audiences ;  and  success  crowned  his  labors. 

William  C.  Stribling  is  a  name  prominent  at  this 
period  in  the  history  of  Methodism  in  Kentucky. 

"He  was  born  in  Albemarle  County,  Virginia, 
March  18,  1795.  He  was  the  oldest  son  of  Thomas 
and  Elizabeth  Stribling,  who  were  citizens  of  Virginia. 
They  emigrated  to  Kentucky,  and  settled  near  Lex- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  153 

ington  in  1825.  Soon  after,  he  moved  to  a  farm 
which  he  had  previously  purchased  in  Logan  County, 
where  he  resided  till  his  death  in  1827.  His  wife  re- 
mained upon  the  farm  for  several  years,  and  thence 
moved  with  her  son  Benjamin  to  Cass  County,  Illi- 
nois. She  died  near  Virginia,  in  the  above  county, 
in  June,  1834.  Thomas  Stribling  and  his  wife  were 
members  of  the  Methodist  Church,  and  died  in  the 
triumphs  of  Christian  faith. 

"  William  C.  Stribling  received  his  early  education 
in  the  common  schools  of  Virginia,  with  one  term  at 
a  grammar  school.  He  obtained  the  grace  of  conver- 
sion October  12,  1810.  He  received  license  to  exhort 
in  1812,  and  was  first  licensed  to  preach  January  24, 
1813.  His  first  field  of  labor  was  in  Virginia,  under 
the  direction  of  the  presiding  elder  for  a  few  months. 
He  was  received  upon  trial  in  the  regular  itinerancy 
in  the  Tennessee  Conference,  October,  1813;  was  or- 
dained deacon,  October  22,  1815,  by  Francis  Asbury; 
and  elder,  November  6,  1817,  by  Robert  R.  Roberts. 
He  received  a  certificate  of  location,  September  27, 
1823,  from  Enoch  George.  He  was  readmitted  into 
the  regular  work  and  traveled  for  a  few  years,  and 
again  took  a  certificate  of  location  from  Joshua  Soule, 
dated  Versailles,  Kentucky,  October  15,  1827. 

"  His  experience  in  the  itinerant  ranks  embraced 
some  fourteen  years,  mostly  in  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky Conferences.  For  a  short  time  he  extended  his 
labors  into  the  Missouri  Conference. 

"He  was  married  October  2,  1821,  to  Miss  Ma- 
hala,  only  daughter  of  Jonathan  and  Lourana  Becraft, 
of  Bourbon  County,  Kentucky.  In  1832  he,  in  com- 


154  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

pany  with  his  father-in-law,  moved  to  Illinois,  and 
settled  in  Morgan  County,  near  the  town  of  Jackson- 
ville. By  this  marriage  there  were  born  to  him  two 
children — namely,  Mary  Elizabeth  and  Joanna.  The 
younger  died  at  the  age  of  sixteen ;  the  elder  married 
Mr.  James  H.  Lurton,  one  of  the  prominent  citizens 
of  Morgan  County,  who  at  present  resides  upon  the 
old  homestead  farm.  His  widow  still  lives,  and  makes 
her  home  with  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Lurton.  Her  faith 
is  unshaken  in  the  God  of  her  fathers,  and  she  antici- 
pates, before  a  great  while,  a  happy  reunion  with  her 
departed  husband. 

"  Mr.  Stribling,  a  few  months  before  his  death, 
moved  into  the  city  of  Jacksonville,  and  occupied  his 
splendid  home  till  the  hour  of  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred, after  a  brief  sickness,  December  18,  1872.  His 
funeral  discourse  was  preached  by  Rev.  Peter  Akers, 
D.  D.,  from  the  words,  '  Therefore  be  ye  also  ready ; 
for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not  the  Son  of  man 
cometh.'  (Matt,  xxiv,  44.) 

"  Mr.  Stribling  was  a  prodigy,  a  wonderful  char- 
acter. In  his  make-up  he  was  unlike  any  one  else. 
He  is  exceedingly  hard  to  illustrate  through  pen-por- 
traiture. To  read  the  man  correctly  one  must  have 
known  him  personally. 

"  He  has  passed  from  us,  leaving  comparatively 
little  material  for  the  historian  to  arrange  and  set  in 
order  that  the  intelligent  reader  may  be  interested  in 
the  study  of  one  of  the  brighter  lights  of  the  early 
Western  leaders  of  American  Methodism.  In  his  min- 
isterial abilities  he  stood  in  comparison  favorably  with 
Durbin,  Bascom,  Tidings,  Stamper,  Light,  Latta,  and 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  155 

others.  He  appeared  before  the  Church  in  the  early 
time,  Avhen  the  fathers — especially  in  the  West — made 
the  listening  crowds  feel  the  force  of  their  eloquence 
as  natural  orators,  with  none  of  the  trammels  that 
often  burden  the  pulpit  of  the  present  day.. 

"  We  have  no  written  sermons  from  Mr.  Stribling 
to  aid  in  writing  up  the  make  of  this  more  than  ordi- 
nary man.  He  was  peculiarly  gifted.  His  memory 
was  wonderful.  He  often  remarked,  *  I  never  have 
occasion  to  use  the  word,  I  forgot.'  He  was  a  man 
of  books,  a  veritable  bookworm,  and  a  close  and  te- 
nacious thinker.  When  reading,  if  any  thought  or 
idea  advanced  by  the  author  caught  his  special  atten- 
tion, he  noting  it,  could  use  not  only  the  idea,  but 
the  exact  language,  if  he  so  desired. 

"  Hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  the  early  wor- 
shipers of  the  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri 
Conferences  have  listened  to  the  earnest  appeals  of 
Mr.  Stribling.  When  in  his  best  days  he  stood  in 
the  front  ranks,  leading  and  molding  character,  the 
fruits  of  which  are  at  work  to-day  permeating  a  large 
territory  where  American  Methodism  at  present  is  a 
national  power. 

"  His  manner  was  quaint,  and  had  a  tendency  to 
attract  attention,  yet  he  possessed  the  power  to  im- 
press upon  his  audience  the  gravity  of  his  theme  in 
the  most  solemn  and  serious  style.  While  it  may 
truthfully  be  said  of  Mr.  Stribling  that  he  was  pecul- 
iarly an  attractive  preacher,  there  were  certain  sub- 
jects upon  which  he  excelled.  His  most  remarkable 
efforts  were  generally  upon  the  Sufferings  of  Christ, 
the  Resurrection,  and  the  General  Judgment.  At 


156  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

times  he  was  possessed  of  deep  and  profound  emotion. 
The  magnetism  of  his  own  nature  would  occasionally 
arouse  his  audience ;  and  generally,  on  those  occa- 
sions, he  carried  the  multitude  with  him. 

"  There  were  but  few  men  who  could  impress  the 
solemnity  and  sacredness  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's-supper  as  he.  He  was  marvelous  in  the  use 
of  language.  He  had  strong  tendencies  in  the  line  of 
poetry.  He  was  an  ardent  and  devout  student  of 
Milton,  Young,  and  Pollok,  and  took  a  deep  interest 
in  committing  and  communicating  from  these  authors. 

"  Mr.  Stribliug  early  formed  the  habit — probably 
it  was  natural  for  him — to  make  use  of  stilted  or  ex- 
travagant language.  Many  years  ago  an  amusing 
episode  occurred  between  him  and  Rev.  John  T. 
Mitchell,  formerly  book  agent  at  Cincinnati.  It  was 
while  Mr.  Mitchell  was  stationed  in  Jacksonville,  111. 
Mr.  Mitchell  took  a  deep  interest  in  Mr.  Strib- 
ling.  Meeting  him  on  the  street  upon  a  certain 
occasion,  Mitchell  addressed  Stribling  in  a  very 
high-flown  manner.  Stribling  at  once  accepted  the 
challenge,  one  broadside  following  in  quick  succession 
from  these  assailants.  Mitchell  soon  found,  to  his 
discomfiture,  that  his  stock  in  trade  was  all  used  up. 
Significantly  looking  into  the  face  of  Stribling,  he 
quizzically  replied,  '  Brother  Stribling,  as  far  as  I 
understand  this  case,  I  am  ahead.  Good  morning.' 

"  All  such  incidents  tended  to  quicken  the  appetite 
of  Mr.  Stribling,  and  at  once  Webster's  Dictionary 
opened  before  him. 

"As  an  illustration  of  the  peculiar  style  of  this 
peculiar  man,  I  send  you  his  reproof  upon  the  use  of 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  157 

tobacco  :  '  Sir,  the  deleterious  effluvia  emanating  from 
your  tobacconistic  reservoir  so  obfuscates  my  ocular 
optics,  and  so  distributes  its  infectious  particles  with 
the  atmospheric  fluidity  surrounding  me,  that  my 
respirable  apparatus  must  shortly  be  obtunded,  unless, 
through  the  abundant  suavity  of  your  pre-eminent 
politeness,  you  will  disembogue  that  luminous  tube 
from  the  pungent,  stimulating,  and  sternutatory  in- 
gredient which  replenishes  the  rotundity  of  the  vast- 
ness  of  its  concavity.'  The  above  grew  out  of  a 
young  man  smoking  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Stribling. 
He  whiffed  the  smoke  in  his  face,  and  caught  this 
remarkable  chiding  for  his  want  of  good  manners. 

"  There  lies  before  me  a  letter  written  by  Mr. 
Stribling  to  his  wife  while  he  was  filling  a  pulpit  in 
Chicago,  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  Rev.  John 
Clark,  of  the  Rock  River  Conference.  I  will  dupli- 
cate the  letter  just  as  he  wrote  it: 

"  '  CHICAGO,  Illinois,  August  19,  1854. 

" '  Now  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  troublous 
times,  poor  "W.  [meaning  himself]  said  in  heart,  Go 
to  now,  behold,  I  will  set  in  order,  and  write  words  to 
her  whom  my  soul  loveth. 

" '  O,  thou  fairest  among  women,  know  and  un- 
derstand that  thy  servant  reached  the  city  of  Spring- 
field according  as  he  purposed  in  his  heart.  And  he 
entered  into  the  house  of  her  who  is  supposed  by  men 
to  have  soothing  entertainment.  And  behold,  she 
gave  unto  him  morsels  designed  to  refresh  the  heart 
of  man.  Then,  behold,  when  they  had  been  swallowed 
up  quickly,  she  whispered  in  the  ear,  "  If  thou  turn 


158  LIFE  AND    THfES   OF 

aside,  either  to  the  right  or  left,  you  will  be  left." 
Therefore,  poor  \V.  made  speed  to  get  along  as  thou 
knowest  he  is  wont  to  do  when  greatly  hurried. 

"'Thus  he  got  on  before  the  last  moment  was 
fled,  and  he  arrived  here  after  the  sun  had  gone 
down  and  the  hour  of  ten  had  fully  come. 

" '  Now,  lo,  the  high-priest  is  gone  forth,  so  that 
poor  W.  hath  not  seen  him,  albeit  it  is  said,  he  wrote 
a  second  epistle  to  poor  "W.  Peradventure  thine  eyes 
have  seen  it. 

" '  The  stranger  hath  not  known  where  to  go,  but 
after  finding  room  in  an  inn,  till  the  shadows  of  the 
night  had  fled  away,  he  sought  diligently,  and  found 
a  brother,  surnamed  Nolen,  who  abode  in  the  village 
nigh  unto  thee,  and  wrought  as  silvermith  in  the  days 
of  old  time ;  and  behold,  they  also  have  given  morsels 
to  poor  W.,  and  their  damsel  hath  given  paper  and 
ink  unto  thy  servant,  that  he  may  write  unto  thee. 
Mine  host  saith  that  health  prevaileth  in  the  city. 

" '  He  who  writeth  this  epistle  can  not  tell  how 
things  will  go  with  him  till  the  return  of  the  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loveth.  So  "W.  hath  gone  into  where 
many  books  and  papers  are  prepared  for  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  men,  and  behold !  and  behold !  \V. 
looked  on  and  desired  many  of  these  books,  but 
whether  he  will  reach  forth  his  hand  and  partake 
thereof  he  saith  not. 

" '  The  writer  of  this  epistle  is  not  able  to  say 
when  thou  shalt  look  him  in  the  face.  Now  let  it 
come  to  pass,  when  thou  lookest  upon  this  epistle, 
say  in  thy  heart,  Lo,  I  will  place  myself  hard  by  the 
writer's  ink-horn,  and  write  many  words,  and  send 


BISHOP    KAVANAUGH.  159 

them  to  poor  W.,  a  stranger  and  sojourner  now  in  the 
city  of  Chicago,  111. 

" '  The  man,  far  from  handsomeness.' "  * 

"  In  a  conversation  which  I  had  with  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh,  in  Quincy,  111.,  he  spoke  in  terms  of  enthusi- 
astic admiration  of  the  late  Rev.  Wm.  C.  Stribling, 
saying  that  in  his  semi-centennial  sermon  before  the 
Kentucky  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  he  had  paid  Stribling  the  tribute  of 
being  the  most  remarkable  preacher  he  had  ever  known, 
and  then  related  an  incident  illustrating  his  extraor- 
dinary power  in  the  pulpit,  and  that  genuine  surprise 
that  people  usually  experienced  on  first  hearing  him. 

"He  said  that  some  time  after  Stribling  located 
he  met  him  at  a  camp-meeting  in  Kentucky,  which 
was  largely  attended,  and  where  there  were  preachers 
enough  to  make  a  good-sized  conference,  some  of  them 
quite  celebrated.  But  when  a  preacher  was  selected 
for  the  most  important  hour  on  Sunday,  Stribling  was 
the  man.  Being  a  farmer  at  that  time,  he  was  very 
plainly  clad  in  a  cheap  suit  of  blue  cotton,  considera- 
bly faded  and  worn,  so  that  his  appearance  was  very 
unclerical.  The  crowd  was  great,  the  occasion  was 
great,  and  the  expectation  was  great ;  and  great  was 
the  mortification,  not  to  say  disgust,  when  the  home- 
spun stranger  took  the  stand.  Why  should  he  be 
put  up  when  there  was  such  a  galaxy  of  illustrious 
stars  ready  to  dazzle  them  with  their  superior  glory? 

"'He  announced  his  text/  said  the  bishop,  'and 

*This  sketch  of  Wm.  C.  Stribling  was  furnished  by  Rev. 
McKcndree  McElfresh,  of  Illinois  Conference. 


160  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

preached  on  the  resurrection  such  a  sermon  as  I  never 
heard  from  any  other  man,  before  or  since.  The  vast 
crowd  was  captured  and  held  in  almost  breathless 
surprise  and  interest  till  the  close.  After  the  services 
were  over  an  old  farmer  walked  up  to  him,  and,  gaz- 
ing at  him  as  if  in  wonder,  said  :  "  See  here,  stranger. 
If  you  have  a  worse  suit  of  clothes  than  that  at 
home,  I  wish  you  would  put  them  on,  and  come 
down  into  my  neighborhood  and  preach  to  the  people. 
I  just  want  to  see  'em  surprised." ' 

"  The  above  is  substantially  the  bishop's  remarks, 
as  I  remember  them."* 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  next  stationed  in  Lexington, 
where  he  remained  for  two  years,  the  same  success 
crowning  his  labors  as  in  the  fields  he  had  previously 
occupied. 

The  zealous  John  James  preceded  him  in  that 
city.  From  the  first  Sabbath  after  conference,  when 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  entered  upon  his  new  charge,  there 
were  indications  of  a  prosperous  year.  The  zeal  of 
the  Church  was  quickened,  class-meetings  were  more 
animating,  prayer-meetings  more  largely  attended — 
while  at  public  worship  the  house  was  not  sufficiently 
large  to  seat  the  congregation.  The  preaching,  too, 
was  distinguished  with  an  earnestness  that  could  not 
but  result  favorably  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 

Although  the  membership  was  large,  yet  the  pas- 
tor carefully  visited  and  prayed  with  each  family 
during  the  first  quarter. 

On   the   5th  of  January,   1834,  Mr.  Kavanaugh 

*The  above  interesting  letter  is  from  G.  E.  Stribling 
McElfresh. 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  161 

commenced  a  meeting  under  unfavorable  auspices. 
The  weather  was  exceedingly  cold,  and  for  a  few  days 
the  attendance  was  small;  but,  encouraged  by  the 
example  and  zeal  of  the  preacher,  the  congregations 
increased,  and  the  house  was  soon  filled  both. morning 
and  evening.  The  interest  became  intense.  Awak- 
enings were  numerous,  and  the  cries  of  penitents  fell 
upon  the  ear,  while  many  passed  from  death  unto 
life.  Day  after  day,  and  night  after  night,  the  voice 
of  the  preacher  was  heard  proclaiming  the  tidings  of 
mercy,  and  urging  sinners  to  escape  the  damnation 
of  hell.  Through  long  weeks  he  protracted  his  labors 
without  any  abatement,  never  seeming  to  grow  weary, 
working  in  both  pulpit  and  altar,  until  more  than 
two  hundred  persons  were  happily  converted,  and  one 
hundred  and  eighty-one  joined  the  Methodist  Church. 
From  this  meeting  the  fire  spread  throughout  the 
Lexington  Circuit,  and  more  than  three  hundred  per- 
sons in  addition  sought  Christ,  and  were  added  to 
the  Church. 

It  was  in  Lexington  that  Mr.  Kavanaugh  admin- 
istered a  reproof  to  a  man  who  he  thought  Avas 
treating  with  contempt  the  message  he  was  deliver- 
ing, that  worried  him  no  little.  He  was  preaching, 
apparently  with  good  effect,  when  a  man  in  the  con- 
gregation, near  the  center  of  the  house,  laughed 
aloud.  The  preacher  reproved  him,  but  he  laughed 
again ;  the  reproof  was  repeated,  and  so  was  the 
-  laughter.  He  found  it  difficult  to  proceed ;  when  a 
brother  stepped  to  the  pulpit  and  said,  "Brother 
Kavanaugh,  that  man  is  an  idiot."  The  preacher's 

embarrassment  was  not  relieved. 

14 


162  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

At  a  subsequent  time,  while  preaching  at  Brook 
Street,  in  the  city  of  Louisville,  a  young  gentleman 
and  lady,  occupying  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  church, 
engaged  in  conversation  and  laughed,  to  the  annoy- 
ance of  both  preacher  and  audience.  After  bearing 
with  them  as  long  as  was  proper,  Mr.  Kavanaugh 
called  the  attention  of  the  congregation  to  their  con- 
duct, and  said : 

"  You  see  that  young  man  and  young  woman  in 
that  pew,  talking  and  laughing.  I  would  reprove 
them  but  for  one  thing:  I  once  reproved  a  man  in 
Lexington  for  laughing,  and  you  will  imagine  my 
mortification  when  I  was  told  that  he  was  an  idiot. 
I  have  reproved  no  one  for  laughing  since,  lest  I 
might  make  the  same  mistake." 

It  was  when  returning  from  the  session  of  the 
conference  held  in  Mt.  Sterling,  in  1834,  at  which  he 
was  reappointed  to  Lexington,  that  Richard  Holding 
was  lamenting  the  difficult  field  to  which  he  was  sent, 
the  Cumberland  Mission.  Mr.  Kavanaugh  attempted 
to  console  him. 

"Yours,"  said  Mr.  Kavanaugh,  "is  not  a  hard 
lot,  and  remember,  we  ought  to  esteem  it  a  privilege 
to  preach  anywhere ;"  adding,  "  I  always  go  cheer- 
fully to  whatever  place  I  am  sent." 

"  Yes,"  replied  Holding,  "  I  reckon  you  do ;  for 
you  are  sent  to  the  best  appointments,  and  when  you 
are  changed,  it  is  from  glory  to  glory." 

During  his  pastorate  in  Lexington  his  popularity 
never  waned.  He  continued  to  attract  to  his  church 
the  largest  audiences,  from  all  classes  of  society,  and 
when,  at  the  close  of  his  term,  he  preached  his  vale- 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  163 

dictory,  an  audience  more  densely  crowded  than  on 
any  previous  occasion  was  before  him,  every  one 
regretting  that  the  law  of  the  Church  limited  the 
pastoral  term  to  two  years. 


164  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 
OF  1835  TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1839. 

r\  AHE  death  of  William  Adams,  which  occurred 
.I  August  5,  1835,  left  a  vacuum  in  the  Kentucky 
Conference  that  might  not  be  easily  filled.  He  had 
sustained  to  Mr.  Kavanaugh  the  endearing  relation 
of  presiding  elder,  and  the  warmest  friendship  existed 
between  them.  He  was  the  "  son  of  Simon  and  Gate 
(Wren)  Adams,  and  was  born  in  Fairfax  County,  Vir- 
ginia, June  29,  1785.  He  was  a  nephew  of  William 
Watters,  the  first  native  American  traveling  preacher. 
His  father  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England, 
but  his  mother  was  a  Methodist.  His  father  migrated 
to  Kentucky  in  1786  or  1787,  and  settled  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Lexington ;  and  when  Benjamin  Ogden 
came  to  Kentucky  as  a  missionary  he  made  the  house 
of  Simon  Adams  one  of  his  preaching-places,  having 
become  acquainted  with  him  while  they  were  both 
performing  military  service  in  the  Revolution.  The 
father  of  William  had  been  well  educated,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  Territorial  Legislature;  and  he  gave 
his  so"n  such  advantages  as  the  neighborhood  fur- 
nished, though  they  secured  to  him  nothing  beyond  a 
good  English  education,  upon  which,  however,  he  en- 
grafted much  more  extensive  attainments  in  after-life. 
"  William  Adams  was  converted  in  the  fourteenth 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  1G5 

or  fifteenth  year  of  his  age,  about  the  time  of  the 
memorable  revival  which  took  place  in  Kentucky, 
near  the  commencement  of  the  present  century."* 

In  1814,  he  became  a  traveling  preacher,  and 
never  turned  aside  from  the  work  until  released  by 
death.  His  first  appointment  was  the  Salt  River  Cir- 
cuit. In  1815  and  1816  he  traveled  on  the  Jefferson; 
in  1817  the  Danville  and  Madison;  in  1818  the 
Franklin;  1819,  the  Shelby;  1820,  he  was  returned 
to  the  Jefferson,  and  in  1821,  he  traveled  the  Lex- 
ington. 

At  the  Conference  of  1822  he  was  appointed  to 
the  office  of  presiding  elder,  and  placed  on  the  Salt 
River  District,  on  which  he  remained  for  three  years, 
when  he  was  changed  to  the  Kentucky  District,  where 
he  labored  for  four  years.  In  1829  he  was  appointed 
to  the  Ohio  District,  which  extended  from  Franklin 
County  to  the  lowest  extremity  of  Ohio  and  Daviess 
Counties.  In  1831  he  was  relieved  from  the  arduous 
duties  of  the  presiding  eldership  and  stationed  in 
Lexington,  but  at  the  following  conference  we  find 
him  on  the  Harrodsburg  District,  where  he  remains 
two  years.  In  1834  he  received  his  last  appointment, 
which  was  to  the  Lexington  District. 

His  "whole  ministry  was  marked  by  great  labor 
and  self-denial.  His  first  circuit  was  more  than  four 
hundred  miles  around ;  but  he  traveled  it  once  in  six 
weeks,  preaching  at  some  thirty  places,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  preaching  twice  or  three  times  each  day  for 
weeks  together.  And  this  was  but  a  fitting  introduc- 
tion to  the  twenty  or  more  laborious  years  that  fol- 

*  Rev.  J.  W.  Gunn,  in  Sprague's  Annuls,  p.  562. 


166  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

lowed.  The  country  was  then  new  and  rough,  and 
the  wants  of  himself  and  his  family  were  very  inad- 
equately provided  for;  but  nothing  could  damp  the 
ardor  of  his  resolution,  so  long  as  he  was  privileged 
to  see  the  work  of  the  Lord  prospering  in  his  hands, 
and  this  blessing  seems  rarely  to  have  been  withheld 
from  him. 

Dr.  Basconi  said  of  him : 

"He  had  naturally  a  strong  mind,  and  it  was  well 
stored  with  valuable  information.  To  no  mean  pre- 
tensions of  scholarship,  especially  as  it  regards  English 
literature,  he  added  an  admirable  store  of  theological 
attainments;  and  few  men  have  appeared  upon  the 
same  theater  whose  every-day  performances  through- 
out the  year  ranked  higher  than  those  of  William 
Adams.  Although  seldom  overpowering  in  the  pul- 
pit, he  was  always  lucid,  strong,  and  convincing.  His 
manner  was  singularly  suasive  and  impressive.  His 
moral  and  religious  worth  was  universally  known  and 
appreciated  among  those  who  enjoyed  his  acquaint- 
ance. Grave  and  serious  in  manner,  he  was  at  the 
same  time  cheerful  and  amiable.  Studious  and  labo- 
rious in  his  habits,  he  was  always  social  and  accessible. 
He  lived  beloved,  and  died  regretted  by  all  who  knew 
him  well,  and  especially  by  those  who  knew  his  value 
as  a  member,  and  for  many  years  the  secretary  of  the 
Kentucky  Annual  Conference." 

"As  an  unexceptionable  and  faithful  Gospel  min- 
ister; as  a  prudent,  safe,  and  wise  ecclesiastical  coun- 
selor; as  a  judicious,  circumspect,  and  model  presiding 
elder;  as  a  disinterested,  faithful,  and  affectionate 
friend ;  as  a  dignified  and  affable  gentleman,  and  as  a 


El  SHOP   KAVANAUGH.  167 

modest,  humble,  and  devoted  Christian,  the  Kentucky 
Conference  has  never  had  the  superior  to  William 
Adams.  He  died,  I  think,  in  1835,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Shelby  ville,  Kentucky.  A  few  minutes  before 
his  death  he  laid  his  hands  upon  the  heads  of  his 
little  grandchildren  and  invoked  upon  them  his  patri- 
archal blessing.  '  Now  raise  my  head  higher  upon 
the  pillow,'  he  said.  Then,  as  if  conscious  his  last 
work  on  earth  was  done,  he  lifted  his  eyes  upward 
toward  heaven,  and  spoke  as  if  addressing  ministering 
angels,  whose  presence  he  realized :  '  Stop !  wait  just  a 
moment,  and  I  will  go !  Now  I  am  ready !'  These 
were  his  last  words.  In  a  moment  the  spirit  had  fled, 
and  with  the  heavenly  convoy  was  soaring  upward  to 
its  home  on  high.  O  what  a  void  was  in  the  confer- 
ence when  it  met  a  few  weeks  afterward  in  Shelby- 
ville,  and  William  Adams,  its  long-tried  and  much- 
loved  secretary,was  not  in  his  chair !  I  could  scarcely 
realize  that  he  was  not  there  ;  and  when  Dr.  Bascom 
arose  with  deep  emotion  and  said,  'I  pray  that  his 
mantle  may  fall  on  me!'  every  throbbing  heart  said 
Amen  !"* 

"  William  Adams  was  a  faithful  preacher,  laboring 
successfully  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  about  fifty 
years  ago.  There  arc  yet  some  living  witnesses  of  the 
success  of  this  excellent  preacher  of  righteousness,  who 
wept  in  secret  over  his  congregation,  but  wreathed  no 
flowers  about  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  to  dull  its  edge — 
a  man  whose  clear  intellect  pierced  through  the  sub- 


*Rev.  T.  N.  Ralston,  D.D.,  in  Christian  Advocate,  January 
3,  1867. 


168  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

tleties  and  dispelled  the  shadows  in  which  others 
wrapped  themselves  to  evade  the  perception  of  right. 
Called,  commissioned,  qualified,  and  sent  forth  by  the 
Lord,  he  hesitated  not  to  enter  the  field  with  men 
self-banished  from  the  domestic  circle  for  days,  weeks, 
and  often  months  at  a  time,  seeking  the  lost  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel.  His  heart  yearned  in  pity  over 
the  world  of_sinners,  and  he  counted  all  things  but 
loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord.  He  was  a  man  of  striking  individ- 
uality and  energy  of  character,  self-possessed  and  dig- 
nified, with  those  solid  virtues  which  admirably  fitted 
him  for  the  presiding  eldership — then  a  very  impor- 
tant office  in  the  Church. 

"  The  manner  of  Brother  Adams,  and  his  peculiarly 
deep,  rich,  flexible  voice,  that  seemed  to  clothe  each 
thought  in  a  fitting  garment,  compelled  the  attention 
of  his  listeners.  He  possessed  that  magnetism  whereby 
some  characters  control  and  influence  even  those  with 
whom  they  have  little  sympathy.  This  model  gentle- 
man and  model  Christian  was  not  at  all  demonstrative 
in  manner ;  yet  he  possessed  a  soul  of  fire  that  would 
have  formed  a  Christian  of  the  strongest  type  in  the 
early  ages,  and  who  would  have  suffered  martyrdom 
to  sustain  his  principles.  I  never  heard  him  laugh  or 
indulge  in  jesting  of  any  kind  ;  though,  when  his  face 
was  lighted  with  a  smile,  it  shone  all  the  sunnier  be- 
cause its  sedate  seriousness  was  not  often  disturbed. 
The  earnestness  of  his  ministerial  labors  left  him  but 
little  time  for  simpering  small  talk  or  idle  ceremony; 
yet  he  was  never  surprised  into  an  uncourteous  or  an 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  169 

unchristian  word,  nor  did  he  ever  forget  or  undervalue 
the  beautiful  amenities  of  life. 

"  That  he  did  not  rush  into  the  ministry  uncalled 
by  the  voice  of  God,  is  well  attested  by  a  fact  of  his 
own  stating.  After  preaching  some  years,  he  thought 
he  must  locate,  that  he  might  give  more  attention  to 
his  family  affairs ;  but  so  restless,  uneasy,  and  anxious 
was  he  in  reference  to  the  work  he  believed  himself 
called  to  perform,  that  like  Christmas  Evans,  the  old 
Welsh  preacher  of  world- wide  notoriety,  he  could  give 
neither  sleep  to  his  eyes  nor  slumber  to  his  eyelids 
until,  the  providence  of  God  seeming  to  open  the  way, 
he  returned  to  the  itinerancy,  and  sowed  the  good  seed 
broadcast  and  with  an  unsparing  hand  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  Kentucky,  the  fruits  of  which 
will  tell  for  good  in  eternity.  If  God  calls  a  man  to 
preach,  his  family  will  be  provided  for.  The  promises 
to  that  effect  hang  thick  as  clustering  grapes  through- 
out the  Scriptures.  Brother  Adams's  family  was 
provided  for.  His  wife,  eminently  fitted  to  be  the 
companion  of  such  a  man,  faithfully  performed  the 
home-duties,  and  the  two  children  were  reared  to  be 
a  blessing  to  their  parents  in  time,  and  doubtless  a 
crown  of  rejoicing  in  eternity. 

"  Such  a  man  as  Brother  Adams  secures  for  him- 
self an  immortality  more  beautiful  and  grand  than 
that  of  poet  or  statesman.  He  lives  not  merely  in 
the  sacred  though  fading  associations  of  a  single  spot, 
but  the  light  of  his  spirit  will  continue  to  shine  in 
every  one  of  the  multiplied  souls  which  his  faithful 
ministerial  labors  have  from  year  to  year  called  from 
the  death  of  sin  and  quickened  into  newness  of  life. 

15 


170  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

He  died  old  and  full  of  years,  because  his  life  had 
been  crowned  with  action  and  with  thought. 

"  '  We  live  in  deeds,  not  years ;  in  thoughts,  not  breaths ; 
In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial.'  "  * 

He  died  in  Shelby  County,  at  the  residence  of  his 
son-in-law,  the  Rev.  William  Gunn,  August  5,  1835, 
of  typhus  fever.  On  Sunday  night,  before  his  death, 
he  said  to  Mr.  Gunn  :  "  Something  seems  to  say,  I  am 
fast  shaking  hands  with  time ;  I  think  I  shall  soon  be 
gone.  I  see  nothing  here  worth  living  for,  unless  it 
is  to  do  a  little  good  in  the  Church.  If  it  be  better 
to  depart  and  be  with  Christ ;  I  want  to  go  and  see 
him."  To  his  wife  he  said,  "  We  must  soon  part. 
You  have  done  a  great  deal  to  sustain  the  Gospel. 
Around  and  underneath  you  be  the  everlasting  arms. 
Every  day  and  every  hour  lean  upon  the  Lord."  He 
requested  his  friends  to  come  together  and  sing  and 
pray  with  him,  and  joined  in  the  singing;  and  after 
prayer  he  shouted  aloud,  "  Glory !  glory  to  God !  God 
is  love ! "  Soon  after  which  he  said,  "  It  is  a  very 
easy  death."  He  then  sung: 

"  With  ease  our  souls  through  death  shall  glide, 

Into  their  paradise, 
And  thence  on  wings  of  angels  ride 
Triumphant  through  the  skies." 

He  further  said  to  Mr.  Gunn,  "  Tell  the  preachers  to 
live  to  God — to  live  to  God  alone."  After  a  few  min- 
utes, he  added,  "  It  is  a  perfect  calm,"  and  turning 
his  eyes  upward,  said,  "I  don't  know  but  we  will  get 


*  Letter  to  the  author  from  Mrs.  Julia  A.  Tevis,  of  Shelby- 
ville,  Kentucky. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  171 

to  Zion  together;  there  is  a  mighty  rush."  A  few 
minutes  before  his  departure  he  looked  up  and  said, 
"Wait  a  few  minutes  and  I  will  be  ready — just  one 
minute" — and  then  his  spirit  fled. 

No  member  of  the  conference  felt  the  bereavement 
more  deeply  than  did  Mr.  Kavanaugh.  They  had 
labored  side  by  side  in  the  earlier  years  of  his  minis- 
try, and  won  trophies  for  Christ  upon  the  same  fields, 
and  now  he  could  only,  while  he  bowed  in  submission 
to  his  sovereign  will,  kiss  the  rod  that  smote. 

The  General  Conference  for  1836  was  to  meet  in 
the  city  of  Cincinnati.  Indications  looked  to  a  warm 
contest  on  the  questions  of  slavery  and  abolition.  The 
Kentucky  Conference,  anticipating  the  agitation  of 
these  questions,  appointed  an  able  committee — of  which 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  a  member — which,  after  mature 
consideration,  presented  the  following  report,  which 
was  unanimously  adopted : 

"1.  Resolved^by  the  Kentucky  Annual  Conference, 
That  we  strictly  adhere  to  the  principles  of  our  Church 
on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  that  it  is  our  purpose 
to  persevere  in  the  course  hitherto  pursued,  without 
any  alliance  whatever  with  men  or  measures  whose 
object  may  be  an  interference  with  the  question  of 
slavery,  uncalled  for  by  the  common  good,  and  pro- 
ductive of  mischievous  rather  than  beneficial  results. 

"  2.  Resolved,  That,  in  the  judgment  of  this  con- 
ference, the  interference  of  abolitionists  and  anti- 
slavery  associations,  in  the  North  and  elsewhere,  by 
which  the  peace  and  quiet  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
nation  are  disturbed,  and  their  common  interest,  laws, 
and  safety  placed  in  jeopardy,  should  be  looked  upon 


172  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

as  an  unwarrantable  assumption  of  claim  and  an  abuse 
of  the  rights  of  citizenship. 

"  3.  Resolved,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  confer- 
ence, whenever  such  interference  with  the  rights  of 
American  citizens  is  attempted  by  foreign  emissaries, 
whether  as  lecturers,  ecclesiastics,  or  otherwise,  all 
lawful  means  should  be  promptly  resorted  to,  to  ar- 
rest at  once  the  mischievous  tendency  of  their  sedi- 
tious intermeddling  and  officious  insolence. 

"  4.  Resolved,  That,  without  presuming  to  decide, 
we  would  respectfully  suggest  that  it  is  a  dangerous 
maxim  to  be  adopted  by  American  citizens  in  the 
present  crisis,  that  we  may  appreciate  as  pure  and 
correct  the  motives  of  men  whose  measures  and  move- 
ments tend  directly  to  subvert  the  Constitution  and 
dissolve  the  government. 

"  5.  Resolved,  That  it  is  not  considered  by  this 
body  allowable  for  any  minister  or  member  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  within  the  limits  of  this 
conference,  or,  as  we  conceive,  elsewhere,  to  resort  to 
any  extra-judicial  means  whatever  for  the  purpose  of 
interfering  with  the  question  of  slavery. 

"  6.  Resolved,  That  we  continue  to  repose  entire 
confidence  in  the  rectitude,  policy,  and  operations  of 
the  American  Colonization  Society,  and  that  we  com- 
mend it  to  all  who  are  likely  to  regard  our  opinions 
as  any  way  worthy  their  approval  and  patronage." 

The  Kentucky  Conference  plainly  foresaw  the 
results  of  the  policy  of  abolitionists  upon  the 
Church,  as  well  as  the  State,  and  deemed  it  proper 
to  place  themselves  right  before  the  people  of  Ken- 
tucky and  before  the  nation. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  173 

In  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  General 
Conference,  the  Kentucky  Conference  chose  men  who 
would  stand  abreast  with  the  ablest  ministers  in  the 
Church.  Of  course  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  among  them. 

Previous  to  this  session  of  the  conference  there 
had  been  but  one  Methodist  Church  in  the  city  of 
Louisville.  The  membership  was  large  and  scattered 
throughout  the  city.  To  meet  the  demands  of  the 
rapidly  increasing  population,  it  became  necessary  to 
divide  the  congregation  into  several  societies,  and 
locate  their  places  of  worship  at  convenient  points. 
Hence  the  appearance  this  year  in  the  Minutes  of 
Upper  Station  (afterward  Brook  Street),  Fourth  Street 
(now  Fifth  and  Walnut),  and  Eighth  Street  (now 
Chestnut).  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  appointed  to  Fourth 
Street,  which  was  the  central  Church.  On  his  return 
to  Louisville,  after  an  absence  of  five  years,  he  was 
warmly  welcomed,  and  entered  upon  his  labors  with 
a  commendable  zeal.  A  preacher  is  not  always  a 
proper  judge  of  his  success.  Notwithstanding  his 
unsurpassed  fame,  his  uncompromising  energy,  and 
his  assiduous  labors,  he  saw  but  little,  if  any,  fruit 
from  all  his  toil.  For  the  first  time  since  he  had 
entered  the  ministry,  he  became  discouraged,  and 
thought  of  retiring  from  the  field.  He  communicated 
his  feelings  to  his  wife,  who  whispered  words  of  cheer, 
and  did  all  she  could  to  hold  up  his  hands,  while  "the 
waves  and  billows "  of  temptation  were  "  passing 
over  him." 

"Perhaps  I  am  mistaken  in  thinking  that  I 
am  called  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,"  he  said  to 
this  noble  woman  one  day  when  they  were  alone. 


174  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

"  That  is  impossible,"  she  quickly  replied,  "  for 
look  at  the  success  that  has  crowned  your  ministry 
everywhere  you  have  preached  the  Gospel." 

"  If  that  argument  holds  good,"  he  answered, 
"  then  why  such  barrenness  here  ?" 

"  It  is  not  always  harvest-time.  You  must  sow 
before  you  reap.  Besides,  one  sows  and  another 
reaps.  Have  you  not  sometimes  thought  that  you 
entered  upon  the  labors  of  those  who  preceded  you, 
and  reaped  a  harvest  from  their  toils?  This  year 
may  be  seed-time  for  your  Church,  and  the  harvest 
may  come  hereafter.  On  our  itinerant  system  such 
results  must  frequently  occur." 

He  arose  and  left  the  room,  the  tears  streaming 
from  his  -eyes.  He  retired  to  his  place  of  secret 
prayer  and  knelt  before  God.  The  struggle  was  long 
and  severe,  but  God  heard  him.  He  returned  to  the 
family  room.  The  eyes  of  his  wife  caught  the  smile 
that  rested  upon  his  face  as  he  repeated  the  impres- 
sive and  beautiful  hymn,  commencing  with, — 

"  Away  my  unbelieving  fear, 

Fear  shall  in  me  no  more  have  place ; 
My  Savior  doth  not  yet  appear, 

He  hides  the  brightness  of  his  face. 
But  shall  I  therefore  let  him  go, 

And  basely  to  the  tempter  yield? 
No !  in  the  strength  of  Jesus,  No, 

I  never  will  give  up  my  shield. 

"  Although  the  vine  its  fruit  deny, 

Although  the  olive  yield  no  oil, 
The  withering  fig-trees  droop  and  die, 

The  fields  elude  the  tiller's  toil ; 
The  empty  stall  no  herd  afford, 

And  perish  all  the  bleating  race, 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  175 

Yet  will  I  triumph  in  the  Lord, — 
The  God  of  my  salvation  praise." 

Mrs.  Kavanaugh  was  correct.  He  had  sown 
good  seed,  and  the  year  following  the  harvest  was 
abundant. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1832  he  had  left  Bardstown, 
Four  years  had  elapsed  when  he  returned  again  to 
that  charge.  After  the  temptation  of  the  previous 
year,  to  which  he  had  well-nigh  yielded,  it  was  im- 
portant, perhaps,  to  his  future  ministry  that  the  pres- 
ent year  should  be  marked  with  prosperity.  The 
months  of  Autumn  and  of  Winter  passed  away  with- 
out any  special  indications  of  divine  power,  but  with 
the  earliest  buddings  of  Spring  the  congregations 
began  to  increase,  and  the  Church  exhibited  greater 
signs  of  life. 

March  had  not  disappeared  until,  under  the 
preaching  of  the  pastor,  a  gracious  revival  began,  and 
continued  sweeping  through  the  community,  like  a 
flame  of  fire,  until  it  pervaded  every  class,  and  reach- 
ing the  Presbyterian  Church,  which  was  equally 
blessed  with  his  own.  Seventy  persons  professed  re- 
ligion, thirty-five  of  whom  joined  the  Methodist 
Church,  and  the  same  number  the  Presbyterian. 

The  May  following  a  meeting,  at  which  we  were 
present,  was  held  in  Mt.  Washington,  then  included 
in  the  Taylorsville  Circuit,  of  which  Richard  D. 
Neale  had  charge.  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  invited  to 
assist  him.  Fresh  from  the  revival  in  Burdstown,  he 
entered  upon  the  work  in  the  spirit  of  his  Divine 
Master,  and  preached  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  dowa 
from  heaven.  He  spent  about  ten  days  at  the  meet- 


176  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

ing,  preaching  morning  and  evening,  witnessing  the 
richest  displays  of  Almighty  goodness. 

Nor  was  his  fame  confined  to  his  own  Kentucky. 
Beyond  the  Mississippi  his  services  were  eagerly 
sought  after. 

The  conference  for  several  years  had  suffered  from 
the  loss  of  many  of  its  ablest  preachers,  not  only  by 
death,  but  by  transfer  to  other  conferences.  Within 
a  few  years  McHenry,  Lindsey,  Powers,  Vance,  Mc- 
Knight,  Ogden,  Landrum,  Harrison,  Outten,  Adams, 
Cosby,  Duke,  and  Littlejohn  had  died,  and  within  the 
same  time  McCown,  Young,  Wallace,  Light,  Bird, 
Holliday,  Evans,  and  Frazee  had  been  transferred  to 
other  conferences.  It  would  be  difficult  for  any  con- 
ference to  sustain  itself  under  such  a  draught  upon 
its  members.  It  was  proposed,  however,  to  make  a 
further  invasion  upon  its  ranks  by  the  transfer  of 
Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh  to  the  Missouri  Conference, 
for  the  purpose  of  stationing  him  in  the  city  of  St. 
Louis.  Unwilling  to  interfere  with  the  episcopal  pre- 
rogative, the  conference,  nevertheless,  deemed  it  not 
improper  to  request  the  bishop  not  to  transfer  Mr. 
Kavanaugh.  The  following  resolution  was  offered  by 
Benjamin  T.  Crouch  and  Henry  B.  Bascom : 

"  Whereas,  it  has  been  represented  to  many  mem- 
bers of  this  conference  that  some  steps  have  been 
taken  to  remove  Brother  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh 
from  the  ranks  of  this  conference  by  transfer;  and, 

"  Whereas,  this  conference  is  already  very  much 
impoverished  in  the  older  portion  of  its  membership, 
by  removals,  deaths,  and  otherwise ;  therefore, 

"  Resolved,    That    we    respectfully   request    Bishop 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  177 

Roberts  to  give  Brother  Kavanaugh  an  appointment 
in  this  conference." 

The  removal  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  from  Kentucky 
at  this  period  would  have  been  a  serious  misfortune 
to  the  Church  in  the  State.  No  preacher  in  the  con- 
ference more  fully  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  pub- 
lic, or  held  a  warmer  place  in  the  affections  of  the 
Church  than  did  Mr.  Kavanaugh.  For  many  years 
he  had  occupied  the  most  important  fields,  and  his 
ministry  was  sought  everywhere  throughout  the  com- 
monwealth. Endowed  with  an  intellect  of  a  high  order, 
with  powers  of  oratory  rarely  equaled,  and  with  zeal 
and  devotion  to  the  Church  that  no  one  could  chal- 
lenge, he  exerted  an  influence  that  was  felt  not  only 
in  the  walks  of  Methodism,  but  in  other  communions. 
He  was  no  common  man,  and  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence felt  that  if  his  ministry  was  needed  elsewhere, 
for  the  very  same  reason  it  was  required  in  Ken- 
tucky ;  besides,  he  had  grown  up  among  them.  He 
had  entered  the  Kentucky  Conference  in  early  man- 
hood, and  for  fourteen  years  their  fortunes  and  his 
had  been  one,  and  they  felt  unwilling  that  a  separa- 
tion between  him  and  them  should  occur.  Their  pe- 
tition to  the  bishop  was  respectful.  Mr.  Kavanaugh 
was  not  transferred. 

About  this  time  a  remarkable  man  appeared  in 
Kentucky.  He  was  an  Irishman  by  birth.  John 
Newland  Maffitt  was  born  in  the  city  of  Dublin, 
Ireland,  December  28,  1794.  His  father  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Methodist  Society,  and  endeavored  to  im- 
press upon  his  son  the  principles  of  true  religion. 
Death,  however,  deprived  him  of  his  paternal  parent, 


178  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

leaving  him  in  childhood  to  the  sole 'guidance  of  his 
mother,  who  was  a  member  of  another  communion. 
Frivolous  and  gay,  he  passed  through  his  youth  for- 
getful of  the  instructions  of  his  sainted  father  and 
the  oftTgiven  advice  of  his  mother,  engaging  in 
every  species  of  amusement  where  God  and  heaven 
are  forgotten. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  was  arrested  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  was  powerfully  awakened  to  a  sense  of 
his  condition  as  a  sinner  before  God,  and,  deeply  pen- 
itent, pleaded  for  mercy,  poising  between  hope  and 
despair.  The  struggle  was  severe,  and  was  protracted 
through  several  days  and  nights ;  but  the  joy  that 
succeeded  was  "  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  From 
his  early  childhood  he  had  entertained  the  impression 
that  he  would  be  a  preacher ;  yet  after  his  conversion 
we  see  him  reluctant  to  yield  to  the  conviction  of  his 
heart,  or  to  listen  to  the  voice  which  appealed  to  his 
conscience :  "  Wo  is  unto  me,  if  I  preach  not  the 
Gospel !"  Only  a  few  weeks  elapse,  however,  until 
we  find  him  praying  in  public,  exhorting  sinners  to 
repent,  and  making  an  appointment  to  preach ,  but  he 
failed  in  the  attempt.  Discouraged  and  depressed,  he 
resolved  to  abandon  all  thought  of  the  pulpit,  when 
a-  revival  in  the  city  of  Dublin,  under  the  ministry 
of  a  soldier-preacher,  opened  the  way  for  him  to  ex- 
ercise his  gifts;  and  we  soon  behold  him  offering 
hope  to  the  despairing,  salvation  to  the  lost,  and  life 
to  the  dead.  From  time  to  time,  without  official  au- 
thority from  the  Church,  he  continued  to  preach  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  His  earnest  appeals 
arrested  the  ungodly,  aroused  the  Church,  and  brought 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGH.  179 

much  fruitage  to  his  Master.  Ungenerous  criticism 
and  opposition  determined  him  again  to  decline  a 
\  work  to  which  he  believed  himself  to  be  divinely 
called,  when  Arthur  Noble,  the  friend  and  colleague 
of  Gideon  Ouseley,  the  famous  Irish  missionary,  in- 
vited him  to  meet  him  in  Ballymena,  and  travel  with 
him  on  his  missionary  route.  Handsome  in  person, 
graceful  in  his  manners,  tender  in  his  address,  and 
endowed  with  a  powerful  and  persuasive  eloquence, 
he  soon  occupied  a  place  in  the  popular  thought  that 
could  be  claimed,  perhaps,  by  no  man  of  his  age  in 
the  Emerald  Isle. 

Early  in  life  he  was  married  to  a  young  and  very 
beautiful  girl,  who  joined  hei?  influence  with  that  of 
his  mother  to  dissuade  him  from  being  a  preacher. 
Added  to  this,  pecuniary  misfortunes  overtook  him, 
and  determined  him  to  emigrate  to  America.  On  the 
21st  of  April,  1819,  he  landed  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  being  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 

In  1822  he  offered  himself  as  an  itinerant  preacher 
to  the  New  England  Conference,  and  was  admitted 
on  trial.  His  first  appointment  was  with  the  cele- 
brated George  Pickering,  as  a  conference  missionary. 
In  1823  he  was  appointed  to  Fairhaven  and  New 
Bedford,  and  the  following  year  he  was  the  junior 
preacher  on  the  Barnstable  Circuit.  In  1825  he  was 
stationed  in  Dover,  and  in  1826  in  Dover  and  Som- 
ersworth.  At  the  conference  of  1827  he  was  sent  to 
the  city  of  Boston,  and  in  1828  to  Portsmouth,  where 
he  continued  for  two  years.  In  1830  he  was  returned 
to  the  city  of  Boston,  and  the  following  year  was  left 
without  an  appointment,  to  give  him  the  opportunity 


180  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  settling  his  temporal  affairs,  which  had  become 
somewhat  embarrassed.  In  1832  he  located. 

During  the  ten  years  that  Mr.  Maffitt  traveled  as 
a  preacher  he  performed  the  duties  of  an  itinerant 
with  energy  and  zeal,  and  in  the  several  fields  he  oc- 
cupied success  crowned  his  labors.  Whether  as  a 
missionary,  carrying  the  tidings  of  a  Redeemer's  love 
to  the  poor  and  the  humble  throughout  the  New 
England  Conference,  or  lifting  the  standard  of  the 
cross  in  the  rural  districts,  or  unfurling  its  crimsoned 
banner  in  the  capital  of  Massachusetts,  we  find  him 
not  only  faithful,  but  beloved  by  the  people  he  served, 
and  everywhere  gathering  stars  to  deck  the  crown  of 
his  rejoicing  in  the  hereafter. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Maffitt  turned  away 
from  the  itinerant  work,  to  which  he  was  so  well 
adapted;  yet  it  is  cause  for  gratitude  that,  in  retiring 
to  the  local  ranks,  he  lost  none  of  the  fire  that  had 
so  often  flashed  from  his  eye  as  he  presented  the  glo- 
ries of  the  cross,  nor  the  zeal  that  had  distinguished 
him  as  an  itinerant  preacher,  nor  an  iota  of  the  pur- 
pose he  had  formed  to  devote  his  energies  and  his  life 
to  the  service  of  the  Church. 

In  1833,  in  connection  with  Lewis  Garrett,  he 
issued,  in  the  city  of  Nashville,  Tennessee,  the  first 
number  of  the  Western  Methodist,  a  religious  weekly 
paper,  which  from  that  period  has  continued  under 
various  names,  as  the  South-western  Christian  Advo- 
cate, Nashville  Christian  Advocate,  Nashville  and  Louis- 
ville Christian  Advocate,  and  is  at  present  the  Christian 
Advocate,  the  central  organ  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  South. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  181 

His  fame  had  preceded  him  to  the  West,  and 
wherever  he  preached  vast  assemblies  thronged  to 
hear  him,  eager  to  catch  the  words  of  life  as  they  fell 
from  his  lips.  As  an  orator  he  had  taken  rank  with 
the  first  preachers  of  the  age,  and  in  the  horizon  of 
public  esteem  occupied  a  commanding  eminence.  It 
was  not  merely  the  fire  that  lit  his  eye,  nor  the  flashes 
of  genius  that  sparkled  through  every  portion  of  his 
mighty  appeals,  nor  his  lofty  flights  of  oratory,  that 
won  for  him  a  reputation  and  a  name  scarcely  equaled 
in  the  history  of  the  pulpit.  It  was  the  burning  zeal 
that  was  consuming  him;  it  was  his  fervent  piety; 
and,  above  all,  it  was  the  brilliant  success,  which 
threw  its  full-orbed  light  along  his  path.  Thousands 
came  to  hear  him,  and  thousands,  through  his  instru- 
mentality, were  converted  to  God  and  added  to  the 
Church. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1833  he  entered  the  Tennessee 
Conference,  and,  with  Littleton  Fowler  as  his  col- 
league, was  appointed  agent  for  La  Grange  College, 
of  which  Robert  Paine  was  president.  In  1834  he 
was  elected  to  the  chair  of  elocution  in  that  college, 
where  he  continued  for  two  years.  At  the  Tennessee 
Conference  of  1836  he  requested  and  obtained  a  loca- 
tion, and  never  afterward  entered  the  itinerant  field. 
His  mode  of  warfare  in  the  ministry  was  that  of  a 
guerrilla — outside  the  regular  method  employed  by 
the  itinerant  preachers. 

Mr.  Maffitt  had  visited  Kentucky  in  the  Winter 
of  1833,  and  spent  a  brief  period  in  the  city  of  Lou- 
isville, where  his  ministry  was  greatly  blessed.  In 
the  Spring  of  1837  he  again  appeared  in  the  State, 


182  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  in  the  village  of  Glasgow  won  his  earliest  trophies. 
Passing  on  to  Lexington,  which  he  pronounces  "one 
of  the  most  beautiful  cities  west  of  the  mountains," 
he  entered  at  once  upon  the  great  business  of  his  life. 
Edward  Stevenson  was  the  pastor.  Mr.  Maffitt  re- 
mained in  Lexington  upward  of  two  months,  during 
which  time  he  preached  almost  every  day  and  night. 
On  his  first  appearance  in  the  pulpit  in  that  city 
every  pew  in  the  church  was  filled,  the  aisles  were 
crowded  to  their  utmost  capacity,  and  the  occasion 
was  distinguished  by  a  quickened  religious  interest  in 
the  popular  mind.  On  the  corners  of  the  streets,  in 
the  marts  of  trade,  in  places  of  business,  the  fame 
of  the  preacher  was  on  every  lip,  while  many  were 
anxiously  inquiring  the  way  of  life  and  salvation. 
The  city  press  teemed  with  his  praise,  and  the  entire 
community  listened  to  his  earnest  sermons,  coming 
from  his  great,  warm,  Irish  heart.  From  the  very 
commencement  the  interest  increased,  and  during  his 
protracted  stay  in  the  city  there  was  no  abatement. 
Bishop  Morris  was  present,  and  preached  a  few  ser- 
mons ;  but  the  public  eye  was  turned  to  Mr.  Maffitt, 
who  had  won  so  largely  upon  the  hearts  of  the  peo- 
ple. In  the  Western  Christian  Advocate,  of  August 
18th,  Mr.  Stevenson  writes:  "Eighty-four  persons 
have  been  converted,  and  our  meeting  is  still  in  progress." 
At  a  later  period  Mr.  Maffitt  writes'  to  Mr.  String- 
field,  editor  of  the  South-western  Christian  Advocate: 
"About  one  hundred  and  sixty,  as  nearly  as  I  can  re- 
member, were  the  fruits  of  the  revival  in  Lexington, 
and  over  one  hundred  and  thirty  became  members  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church — most  of  whom,  if 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGII.  183 

not  all,  were,  in  the  judgment  of  charity,  soundly 
converted  to  God.  May  we  all  be  so  happy  as  to 
meet  one  another  around  the  burning  throne,  to  dwell 
with  God  and  the  holy  angels,  in  sweet  companion- 
ship, forever !"  * 

The  preaching  of  Mr.  Maffit  was  peculiar  and  diffi- 
cult to  describe.  We  have  heard  ministers  who  were 
more  profound  in  research  and  more  logical  in  argu- 
ment than  he  was;  but  we  have  seldom,  indeed, 
listened  to  any  one  who  excelled  in  so  many  depart- 
ments of  ministerial  work  as  did  John  Newland 
Maffitt.  We  have  heard  him  when  his  voice  was 
persuasive  and  soft  as  the  harp  of  -ZEolus,  and  we  have 
sat  beneath  his  ministry  when  like  thunderbolts  it 
fell  upon  the  ear.  His  prototype  was  the  great  apos- 
tle of  the  Gentiles,  whose  life  and  character  he  loved 
to  portray.  Of  St.  Paul  he  presented  the  following 
beautiful  portrait: 

"As  he  had  received  his  commission  direct  from 
heaven,  he  counted  all  worldly  honor  but  dross  when 
compared  to  the  excellency  of  the  sacred  treasure 
given  him  by  the  Lord  Jesus.  The  glittering  charms 
of  time  and  sense  he  despised,  rejecting,  like  holy 
Moses,  the  splendid  trophies  of  aspiring  fame.  It  was 
the  excellency  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  disclosed  to 
his  mind  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  won 
his  great  soul  and  spurred  him  on  to  victory  and 
conquest. 

"  He  therefore  laid  aside  every  weight  and  hinder- 
ance  that  might  encumber  him  in  his  arduous  work, 
suffered  himself  to  be  stripped  for  the  race  and 

*  South-western  Christian  Advocate,  January  25,  1838. 


184  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

harnessed  for  the  battle,  and,  girding  up  his  loins, 
resolved,  in  the  strength  of  Israel's  God,  to  tread  in 
the  footsteps  of  that  same  Jesus  he  once  persecuted  to 
death  in  the  person  of  his  followers.  Throwing  him- 
self on  the  resources  of  his  own  mind,  buoyed  up  by 
the  spirit  of  the  holy  prophets,  which  had  fallen  on 
him  at  his  first  introduction  to  the  holy  office,  he 
moved  forward  through  danger  and  suffering,  not 
anxious  to  avoid  either  if  in  the  path  of  duty,  tam- 
pering not  with  sin,  nor  trimming  between  God  and 
the  world  for  gain  or  ease. 

"  He  expressed  cheerfulness  and  joy  under  suffer- 
ing. '  We  are  troubled/  says  he,  f  on  every  side,  yet 
not  distressed;  we  are  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair; 
persecuted,  but  not  forsaken;  cast  down,  but  not 
destroyed/  'I  take  pleasure  in  infirmities,  in  re- 
proaches, in  necessities,  in  persecutions,  in  distresses 
for  Christ's  sake.'  His  language  at  Ephesus,  on  tak- 
ing leave  of  his  brethren,  was  expressive  of  the  ele- 
vated state  of  his  mind:  'And  now,  behold,  I  go 
bound  in  the  spirit  unto  Jerusalem,  not  knowing  the 
things  that  shall  befall  me  there;  save  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  witnesseth  in  every  city,  saying  that  bonds  and 
afflictions  abide  me.  But  none  of  these  things  move 
me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that 
I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy.'  And  when  pass- 
ing through  Cesarea  he  appeared  in  the  same  inter- 
esting light.  'What  mean  ye,'  says  he,  'to  weep  and 
to  break  mine  heart?  for  I  am  ready  not  to  be  bound 
only,  but  also  to  die  at  Jerusalem  for  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.' 

"He  was  gloriously  successful  to  the  end  of  his  course, 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  185 

because  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  with  him.  This  is 
evident  from  the  repeated  assurances  which  God  gave 
of  almighty  strength,  support,  and  guidance.  In  vis- 
ions of  the  night  angels  appeared  to  strengthen  his 
mind  against  the  assaults  of  every  enemy,  bidding 
him  be  of  good  cheer.  The  divine  agency  rendered 
him  invincible,  as  well  as  patient  and  resigned,  under 
suffering,  strengthened  with  all  might  by  the  Spirit 
in  the  inner  man.  What  or  whom  should  he  fear  ? 

"  'For  he  had  wings  that  neither  sickness,  pain, 
Nor  penury  could  cripple  or  confine ; 
No  nook  so  narrow  but  he  spread  them  there 
With  ease  and  was  at  large.     The  oppressor  held 
His  hody  bound,  but  knew  not  what  a  range 
His  spirit  took,  unconscious  of  a  chain, 
And  that  to  bind  him  was  a  vain  attempt, 
Whom  Heaven  approved.' 

"He  was  gloriously  successful  to  the  end  of  his  course. 
The  arm  of  God  was  stretched  out  in  his  behalf,  and 
signs  and  wonders  were  wrought  by  his  word.  For 
upward  of  thirty  years  he  had  labored  incessantly  in 
the  Lord's  yineyard,  extending  the  savor  of  divine 
love  to  every  spot  he  visited,  or  to  which  he  sent  his 
writings — encompassing  sea  and  land,  traveling  over  a 
vast  portion  of  the  then  known  world,  and  extending 
the  Redeemer's  kingdom  from  the  east  to  the  utter- 
most bounds  of  the  west.  He  marched  forth  into  the 
thickest  ranks  of  the  enemy,  vexing  them  with  his 
incursions.  Equipped  with  armor  of  divine  proof,  his 
only  weapon  the  word  of  God,  which  is  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit,  he  rushed  on  his  most  puissant  foes,  assault- 
ing them  in  all  their  strongholds.  As  he  advanced, 

the  temples  of  the  gods  were  forsaken,  the  walls  of 

10 


.186  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

superstition  tottered,  and  the  spreading  glories  of  the 
cross  illumined  the  palaces  of  kings.  His  weapon 
prevailed  against  the  potentates  of  the  earth,  the  wis- 
dom of  the  greatest  philosophers,  and  on  the  ruins  of 
barbaric  pride  and  pontific  luxury  he  placed  the  sim- 
ple majesty  of  the  religion  of  the  Galilean  peasant. 

"  Behold  this  champion  of  the  cross  after  he  had 
fought  a  good  fight !  See  him  coming  in  at  the  close 
of  the  glorious  warfare.  "With  what  calmness  and 
grandeur  he  looks  down  upon  suffering  and  death ! 
Truly,  they  move  him  not.  The  cross  glitters  on  his 
bosom;  his  hand  firmly  grasps  the  sword  of  the  Lord; 
a  halo  of  glory  encircles  his  brow ;  the  sunshine  of 
eternity  gleams  upon  his  countenance. 

"Happy  Paul!  thy  sun  is  going  down  in  bright- 
ness, growing  larger  as  it  sinks,  like  that  luminary, 
throwing  its  golden  splendors  far  and  wide  over  dis- 
tant lands  when  itself  is  no  longer  visible  to  the  eye. 
Thus  departed  this  prince  of  apostles  from  the  field 
of  missionary  enterprise,  crowned  with  the  laurels  of 
victory  and  glory,  to  reap  an  eternal  reward  in  the 
Church  triumphant  above." 

If  Mr.  Maffitt  spoke  of  the  temptation  in  Para- 
dise, you  would  imagine  yourself  in  the  garden  of 
Eden,  surrounded  with  all  its  charms,  or  reposing 
amid  its  flowers,  where  all  was  joy  and  innocence  and 
love,  listening  to  strains  of  gratitude  and  praise  break- 
ing forth  from  hearts  pure  and  holy;  you  would  see 
the  tempter  insidiously  entering  this  delightful  retreat, 
and  hear  his  siren  voice  as  he  reasoned  with  the  woman, 
guileless  and  beautiful,  and  fresh  from  the  creative 
touch  of  the  almighty  hand ;  you  would  feel  the  in- 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  187 

creasing  danger  to  which  she  was  exposed,  as  the  coils 
of  the  serpent  were  gradually  fastening  upon  her,  un- 
til the  triumph  of  the  enemy  was  complete,  and  all 
was  lost.  If  the  redemption  of  the  world  was  his 
theme,  he  would  carry  you  to  the  lofty  mount  of 
prophecy,  and  then  bid  you  accompany  him  down  the 
corridors  of  time,  leaving  generations  behind  you,  to 
the  period  when  angels  announced  to  the  astonished 
shepherds  on  Bethlehem's  star-lit  plains  the  birth  of 
the  Son  of  God ;  with  Simeon,  you  would  take  the 
Babe  in  your  arms,  and  watch  the  Nazarene  as  he 
passed  from  infancy  to  youth,  and  from  youth  to  man- 
hood ;  the  entrance  of  Christ  upon  his  public  minis- 
try would  take  place  in  your  presence,  and  you  would 
see  him  at  his  baptism,  when  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
likeness  of  a  dove  descended  and  abode  upon  him ; 
you  would  follow  him,  while  here  and  there  he  gath- 
ered a  solitary  disciple,  and  be  entranced  by  the  strange 
doctrines  he  preached  in  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount; 
you  would  mingle  with  the  astonished  multitudes  while 
the  blind  were  being  restored  to  sight,  the  deaf  to 
hearing,  the  dumb  to  speech,  and  would  see  the  leper, 
scorned  and  hated,  and  exiled  from  society,  cleansed, 
and  again  received  into  its  bosom  ;  in  your  presence 
the  lame  man  would  throw  away  his  crutch,  and  leap 
for  joy;  and  the  tear  would  be  wiped  from  the  cheek 
of  sorrow  as  Jairus  received  his  daughter  again  to 
life,  as  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain  was  restored  to 
his  mother,  and  as  Lazarus  returned  from  the  grave 
where  he  had  been  buried  to  his  sisters  at.  Bethany. 
If  he  describes  the  crucifixion,  you  stand  by  the  cross, 
and  see  the  nails  as  they  pierce  his  hands  and  feet; 


188  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

you  are  touched  with  the  compassion  that  floats  in  the 
dim  and  languid  eyes  of  the  illustrious  Sufferer,  and 
are  startled  as  the  words  of  agony,  "My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  fall  from  his  ex- 
pi  ring  lips;  the  heavens  are  shrouded  in  blackness,  fierce 
lightnings  leap  from  cloud  to  cloud,  and  thunders  peal 
their  notes  of  sorrow,  as  the  God-man  cries,  "  It  is 
finished  ! "  If  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  the  topic 
on  which  he  preaches,  the  descending  angel,  the  alarmed 
chivalry  of  the  Roman  army,  the  risen  Lord,  stand 
out  with  prominence;  and  if  the  subject  is  the  ascen- 
sion of  the  Redeemer,  your  eye  follows  the  falling 
cloud  until  it  rests  on  the  side  of  Olivet ;  you  behold 
the  Savior  as  he  steps  upon  it,  and  then  you  watch  it 
as  it  ascends  higher  and  higher,  until  it  is  lost  to  sight 
in  the  immeasurable  distance,  and  still  your  eye  lingers 
in  that  direction  until  you  hear  the  joyous  acclaim, 
"Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates;  and  be  ye  lifted 
up,  ye  everlasting  doors;  and  the  King  of  glory  shall 
come  in."  Then  a  hush  like  the  stillness  of  the  sep- 
ulcher  passes  over  the  audience,  lasting  but  for  a  mo- 
ment, when  once  more  from  the  celestial  parapets  a 
voice  is  heard,  "Who  is  this  King  of  glory?"  The 
reply  rolls  back  to  heaven,  "The  Lord  strong  and 
mighty,  the  Lord  mighty  in  battle.  Lift  up  your 
heads,  O  ye  gates;  even  lift  them  up,  ye  everlasting 
doors;  and  the  King  of  glory  shall  come  in."  Then 
he  passes  through  the  portals. 

We  have  heard  him  describe  the  horrors  of  the 
damned  until  we  almost  gazed  upon  the  burning  flame, 
and  seemed  to  listen  to  the  rattling  of  the  chains  of 
the  lost,  and  hear  their  groans  of  anguish,  and  see 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGE.  189 

them  as  they  writhed  in  their  agony  and  woe.  We 
have  listened  to  him  as  he  spoke  of  heaven  and  por- 
trayed its  joys,  until  the  jeweled  gates  rolled  back, 
and  walls  of  jasper  and  streets  of  burnished  gold  met 
our  vision,  and  an  innumerable  multitude,  with  palms 
and  crowns,  were  reposing  beneath  the  boughs  of  the 
tree  of  life,  or  wandering  along  the  banks  of  the  beau- 
tiful river  that  makes  glad  the  city  of  God  ;  and  we 
seemed  to  hear  their  songs  of  victory  and  shouts  of 
triumph  as  they  exclaimed,  "  Unto  him  that  loved  us, 
and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and 
hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  his 
Father;  to  him  be  glory  and  dominion  forever  and 
ever." 

We  heard  him  once  as  he  talked  of  the  judgment, 
and  the  scenes  of  the  last  day  appeared  full  in  view; 
the  heavens,  black  with-  angry  clouds,  canopied  the 
world;  the  lightnings  flashed  along  the  sky;  thunders 
pealed  forth  in  every  direction,  till  distant  worlds  re- 
echoed the  direful  clangor  of  the  last  agonies  of  dis- 
solving nature.  Then  he  cried,  "  Behold  a  rising 
world,  and  see  demons  and  spirits  damned  coming  up 
from  realms  of  blackest  night,  and  see  the  Judge  com- 
ing down  the  vaulted  sky,  attended  by  all  the  hosts 
of  heaven,  and  all  the  redeemed  from  earth  who  had 
entered  upon  eternal  life.  See  him,  as  he  comes!" 
The  vast  assembly  that  sat  before  him  with  one  ac- 
cord rose  from  their  seats  and  looked  upward,  expect- 
ing to  behold  Him  who  would  judge  the  world,  with 
all  his  shining  retinue  surrounding  him. 

We  repeat,  we  have  heard  preachers  who  in  some 
respects  excelled  Mr.  Maffitt,  but  we  have  never  met 


190  LIFE   AND    TIMES   OF 

with  one  who  exercised  such  power  over  an  audience 
as  he  did. 

From  Lexington  we  follow  him  to  Danville,  where, 
about  the  1st  of  September,  he  commenced  a  series  of 
meetings.  As  in  Lexington,  he  preached  to  crowded 
audiences,  day  and  night,  for  several  weeks.  Under 
his  ministry  the  Church  was  revived,  backsliders  were 
reclaimed,  and  sinners  awakened  and  converted  to  God. 
The  Gospel  preached  by  him  was  mighty,  through 
God,  to  the  "pulling  down  of  strongholds;"  it  was 
the  "  power  of  God  unto  salvation."  Day  after  day 
eager  throngs  came  to  the  house  of  God  to  be  in- 
structed in  the  way  of  life,  and  night  after  night  the 
altar  was  crowded  with  sincere  penitents,  inquiring, 
"What  must  we  do  to  be  saved?"  In  the  pulpit,  in 
the  altar,  in  the  social  circle,  on  the  street,  he  pleaded 
the  cause  of  his  Divine  Master,  and  never  seemed  to 
be  weary.  "  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  save  in 
the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  was  the  feeling 
wThich  animated  and  inspired  him  in  the  grand  and 
noble  work  to  which  he  had  consecrated  his  energies 
and  his  life. 

The  labors  of  Mr.  Maffitt  in  Kentucky,  extended 
through  more  than  two  years,  and  had  been  most  sig- 
nally blessed.  The  last  meeting  at  which  he  was  pres- 
ent in  the  State  was  held  in  Mount  Sterling,  com- 
mencing August  1,  1840.  Here,  as  everywhere  else 
he  had  labored,  sinners  were  awakened,  penitents  con- 
verted, and  the  Church  revived.  Al  the  close  of  the 
meeting  ninety-two  persons  had  witnessed  a  good  con- 
fession. A  camp-meeting  was  held  at  Poynter's  Camp- 
ground, immediately  after  the  close  of  the  meeting  in 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  191 

Mount  Sterling,  at  which  William  Gunn,  Carlisle  Bab- 
bitt, and  Thomas  Demoss  were  present.  Here  thirty- 
two  persons  professed  to  find  "  the  peace  which  passeth 
all  understanding." 

The  question  has  often  been  asked,  Why  was  it 
that  the  labors  of  John  Newland  Maffitt  were  so 
blessed  that  everywhere  he  preached  the  Gospel  the 
work  of  God  was  revived  ? 

Mr.  Maffitt  was  a -man  of  one  work.  The  glory  of 
God  and  the  salvation  of  sinners  occupied  all  his 
thoughts  and  controlled  all  his  actions.  He  seemed 
to  think  of  nothing  else.  We  have  very  frequently 
known  him,  after  preaching  in  the  morning,  to  devote 
the  afternoon  to  religious  conversation  with  seekers 
of  religion,  and  then  preach  again  in  the  evening, 
and  afterward  spend  hours  at  the  altar,  and  then  re- 
tire late — not  yet  to  sleep,  but  to  think  of  the  best 
method  of  achieving  success.  We  have  known  him 
to  rise  frequently  during  the  night,  to  pen  a  thought 
that  had  occurred  to  his  mind,  or  to  kneel  in  prayer 
before  God.  His  responsibilities  to  God  and  his 
duty  to  man  absorbed  every  thought.  Wherever  he 
labored  he  not  only  expected,  but  resolved,  to  succeed, 
and  his  boldness  and  zeal  inspired  the  confidence  of 
the  members  of  the  Church  whom  he  expected  and 
required  to  co-operate  with  him.  He  labored,  too, 
with  an  energy  that  never  flagged.  He  appeared 
never  to  grow  weary.  As  long  as  a  penitent  sinner 
would  remain  at  the  altar  Mr.  Maffitt  was  willing  to 
stay  with  him,  and  sing,  and  pray,  and  instruct  him. 
He  was  no  respecter  of  persons.  Whether  sin  was  to 
be  found  in  high  or  in  low  places,  in  the  most  scath- 


192  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

ing  manner  he  rebuked  it.  He  divested  it  of  all  its 
covering,  and  exposed  it  in  all  its  hideousness.  ^He 
was  faithful  to  God,  and  earnest  in  saving  the  souls 
of  his  fellow-men. 

It  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  present 
volume  to  follow  the  career  of  Mr.  Maffitt  farther;  yet 
it  will  not  be  improper  to  trace  his  history  to  the  close 
of  his  life. 

In  1841  he  was  elected  chaplain  of  the  lower 
house  of  Congress.  He  discharged  the  duties  of  this 
position  with  great  credit  to  himself  and  with  benefit 
to  his  hearers.  In  the  capital  of  the  nation  he  lost 
none  of  the  reputation,  he  had  won  in  the  West. 

After  the  close  of  the  term  for  which  he  was 
elected,  he  left  Washington  City  and  visited  Rich- 
mond, Virginia,  and  other  cities  in  the  North  and 
East,  where  the  same  success  crowned  his  ministry 
as  in  Lexington,  Louisville,  and  other  cities  in  Ken- 
tucky. His  residence  was  mainly  in  the  Atlantic  cit- 
ies until  1847.  About  this  period  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Pierce,  of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  his  first  wife 
having  died  in  Galveston,  Texas.  As  some  com- 
plaints were  made  against  him,  and  his  Church  rela- 
tions falling  into  an  informal  state,  he  was  considered 
as  having  withdrawn  his  membership  from  the 
Church  in  New  York.  Retiring  to  Arkansas,  he 
joined  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and 
was  licensed  to  preach  de  novo.  He  remained  in  Ar- 
kansas about  two  years,  when  he  left  that  State  for 
the  Gulf  cities. 

In  the  Spring  of  1850  we  find  him  carrying  on  a 
religious  meeting  in  a  small  chapel  of  a  suburban  vil- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  193 

lage  of  Mobile,  Alabama.     This  was  the  last  meeting 
he  conducted. 

No  man  in  the  American  ministry,  so  far  as  we 
have  known,  has  ever  been  so  relentlessly  perse- 
cuted as  John  Newland  Maffitt.  We  are  not  sur- 
prised at  this.  The  Divine  Master  was  persecuted 
before  him.  The  bold  and  fearless  attacks  made  on 
vice  by  Mr.  Maffitt,  if  they  failed  to  persuade  the 
ungodly  to  abandon  their  evil  habits,  were  well  calcu- 
lated to  embitter  and  array  them  against  him.  His 
success,  too,  in  the  great  work  that  occupied  his  life 
had  a  tendency  to  provoke  the  wrath  of  the  enemies 
of  the  Church.  Every  thing  that  hate,  and  envy, 
and  malice  could  invent,  to  impair  his  influence 
and  to  break  his  power,  was  said  and  done;  yet, 
through  more  than  thirty  years,  in  which  he  preached 
the  Gospel  of  Christ,  he  maintained  an  unsullied  rep- 
utation as  a  Christian,  not  a  single  stain  ever  fasten- 
ing itself  on  his  escutcheon.  Confiding  too  easily  in 
pretended  friendships,  we  are  not  surprised  that  he 
was  often  betrayed ;  yet  no  betrayal  ever  cast  a  blight 
on  his  fair  name.  Malignant,  and  bitter,  and  busy  as 
was  the  tongue  of  calumny,  he  cherished  no  malice 
against  his  enemies,  but  to  all  their  charges  his  reply 
was,  "  God  forgive  them  !"  Guileless  in  heart,  and 
conscious  of  the  rectitude  of  his  intentions,  he  ought 
to  have  borne  up  under  the  heartless  persecutions 
that  were  leveled  against  him  to  the  last.  No  man 
knew  the  human  heart,  its  depravity  and  corruption, 
better  than  he  did,  and  he  ought  not  to  have  allowed 
his  spirit  to  be  broken  by  the  continued  assaults  of 
his  persecutors.  The  attacks  upon  his  reputation  cul- 

17 


194  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

minated  in  an  article  which  appeared  on  Thursday 
before  his  death  in  a  paper  published  in  Mobile, 
copied  from  the  Police  Gazette  of  New  York.  He 
had  borne  much,  but  his  sensitive  nature  could  bear 
no  more.  From  the  appearance  of  this  article  he 
was  greatly  disturbed,  and  never  slept.  His  sister — • 
Mrs.  Ellen  Ball,  the  wife  of  Dr.  Ball,  whom  he  was 
visiting — was  boarding  with  Mrs.  Ballasette,  where 
Mr.  Maffitt  spent  his  time.  Walking  the  floor  of  Mrs. 
Ball's  room,  he  frequently  pressed  his  heart,  exclaim- 
ing, "O  Ellen,  they  have  broken  my  heart!"  and 
again,  "My  poor  heart  is  breaking!" 

Upon  the  appearance  of  the  article  already  re- 
ferred to,  Mr.  Maffitt  was  advised  to  avenge  himself. 
To  this  advice  he  replied  that  "  such  an  act  would  be 
inconsistent  with  Christian  life,"  and  quoted,  "  Venge- 
ance is  mine ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord."  On 
Monday  morning  he  went  to  Toulminville,  a  suburban 
village  of  Mobile,  to  the  house  of  Major  Reuben 
Chamberlain.  "  Napoleon's  Grave  "  was  his  favorite 
piece  of  music.  Between  six  and  seven  o'clock,  P.  M., 
while  Miss  Chamberlain  was  playing  this  piece,  Mr. 
Maffitt  left  the  parlor  and  went  out  on  the  gallery, 
groaning  heavily.  He,  however,  immediately  re- 
turned to  the  hall,  and  fell  prostrate.  He  was  lifted 
up  and  carried  to  a  sofa.  While  lying  there,  Mrs. 

W said  to  him,  "  Your  enemies  will  outdo  you." 

He  replied,  "  They  will,"  and   prayed,  "  Lord,  have 

mercy   on   them,   and   forgive   them !"     Mrs.  W 

asked  him  if  he  could  forgive  them.  He  replied, 
"  Yes,  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart ;  for  if  I  forgive 
not,  how  can  I  expect  forgiveness  ?"  Medical  atten- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  195 

tion  was  procured  without  delay.  Dr.  E.  P.  Gaines 
administered  an  opiate,  and  forbade  his  talking.  He 
spoke  but  little  afterward,  and  died,  May  28,  1850,  at 
fifteen  minutes  past  two,  A.  M.,  saying,  "  They  have 
broken  my  heart  I"  He  was  buried  in  Magnolia 
Cemetery,  where  he  still  sleeps.  No  marble  marks 
the  spot.  His  grave  is  simply  bricked  over. 

It  might  be  thought  that  after  the  death  of  Mr. 
Maffitt  the  tongue  of  slander  would  be  hushed.  But 
no!  more  busy  than  before,  it  continued  to  follow  him, 
charging  that  he  had  died  by  his  own  hand — that 
poison  had  caused  his  death.  This  suspicion,  which 
nothing  but  the  most  malignant  hate  could  have  sug- 
gested, soon  found  its  way  into  the  press,  and  spread 
throughout  the  country.  It  was  due  the  reputation 
of  the  distinguished  dead,  and  it  was  due  the  cause  of 
the  Master  he  had  so  faithfully  served,  that  this  slan- 
der should  be  arrested.  After  consulting  with  his 
sister,  Mrs.  Ball,  Dr.  Jefferson  Hamilton  and  the  Rev. 
W.  H.  Milburn,  stationed  preachers  in  the  city  of 
Mobilej  determined  that  a  post  mortem  examination 
should  be  had,  under  the  ablest  medical  supervision. 
This  examination  silenced  at  once  and  forever  the 
heartless  calumny.  It  revealed  a  broken  heart.  On 
one  side  of  it  there  were  three  holes ;  the  other  side 
had  literally  burst.*  They  had  broken  his  heart.  Noble 
man  !  He  has  entered  into  the  rest  that  "remaineth  to 
the  people  of  God,"  and  to-day  shares  its  bliss  with 


*Dr.  Ndtt,  who  took  out  the  heart,  kept  it  for  several 
weeks,  and  then  sent  it  to  the  medical  faculty  in  New  Or- 
leans for  examination.  It  was  returned  and  deposited  in  the 
grave. 


196  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

the  many  thousands  who  were  brought  to  Christ 
through  his  ministry.  "  Sleep  on,  and  take  thy  rest." 
In  thine  own  beautiful  language :  "  The  sorrowful 
bosom  heaves  no  more,  the  tears  are  dried  up  in  their 
fountain,  the  aching  head  is  at  rest,  and  the  stormy 
waves  of  earthly  tribulation  roll  unheeded  over  the 
place  of  graves.  The  voice  of  thunders  shall  not 
awake  thee:  the  loud  cry  of  the  elements,  the  winds, 
the  waves,  nor  even  the  giant  tread  of  the  earthquake 
shall  be  able  to  cause  an  inquietude  in  the  chambers 
where  thou  dost  sleep."  God  watches  thy  dust,  and 
will  at  last  gather  it  unto  himself. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  returned  to  Bardstown,  and 
in  the  Summer  of  1838  Mr.  Maffitt  made  him  a  visit, 
and  occupied  his  pulpit  for  nearly  a  month,  day  and 
night.  Under  their  joint  ministry  tjie  Church  was 
greatly  revived,  and  about  fifty  souls  were  converted 
to  God. 

In  February,  1837,  he  had  received  from  Gov- 
ernor Clark  the  appointment  as  superintendent  of 
public  instruction,  in  the  early  morn  of  the  great 
movement  of  that  day  which  has  resulted  in  the  com- 
mon school  system  of  the  State. 

Having  entered  the  Kentucky  Conference  in  1837, 
the  acquaintance  we  had  previously  formed  with  Mr. 
Kavanaugh  became  more  intimate,  and  then  ripened 
into  a  warm  friendship,  and  upon  our  part  into  rev- 
erence. A  member  of  the  same  conference  with  him 
for  many  years,  we  had  every  facility  that  association 
could  offer  for  knowing  him  well. 

The  early  history  of  the  Methodist  Church  in 
Kentucky  is  replete  with  interest.  On  the  question 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  197 

of  education,  even  previous  to  the  admission  of  Ken- 
tucky as  a  State  into  the  Union,  the  Methodist  Church 
was  seen  in  the  van  of  other  Christian  denominations 
in  originating  measures  for  the  education  of  the  youth. 
The  erection  of  the  Bethel  Academy,  and  the  noble 
efforts  of  our  fathers  to  sustain  it — although  they 
failed  to  do  so — is  a  monument  to  their  enlightened 
Christianity  that  no  changes  of  time  can  destroy. 
Their  failure,  however,  instead  of  disheartening  their 
sons  in  the  Gospel,  only  added  strength  to  their  pur- 
poses and  efforts  in  the  future. 

The  great  want  of  a  literary  institution  of  a  high 
order  in  the  State,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Church, 
was  too  apparent  to  admit  of  argument.  From  1812 
to  1820  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee  Conferences  had 
each  embraced  about  one-half  of  Kentucky,  so  that 
no  community  of  interest  was  likely  to  be  felt  in  an 
enterprise  of  this  kind.  The  formation  of  the  Ken- 
tucky Conference  placed  the  Church  in  a  position  to 
look  after  their  resources,  and  to  come  up  to  the 
measure  of  their  duty. 

The  Ohio  Conference  for  this  year  met  twelve 
days  in  advance  of  the  Kentucky.  Previous  to  the 
conference,  the  question  of  "getting  up  an  institu- 
tion of  learning  among  the  Methodists  in  the  West" 
had  been  submitted  by  Mr.  George  S.  Houston,  an 
intelligent  and  pious  layman  residing  in  Dayton,  O., 
to  James  B.  Finley,  at  that  time  the  presiding  elder 
on  the  Lebanon  District.  The  subject  was  first  can- 
vassed in  Mr.  Finley's  district,  and  then  brought  be- 
fore the  Ohio  Conference. 

Unwilling   to   attempt    the   enterprise   alone,  the 


198  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

•: 

Ohio  Conference  appointed  a  committee  to  attend  the 
Kentucky  Conference,  and  propose  that  the  two  con- 
ferences "unite  in  the  establishment  of  a  college  un- 
der their  joint  patronage." 

The  Kentucky  Conference  made  the  following 
response  : 

"  The  committee  appointed  to  confer  with  the 
committee  from  the  Ohio  Conference  on  the  subject 
of  erecting  a  seminary  reported  as  follows : 

"'The  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  sub- 
ject of  a  seminary  having,  as  far  as  time  would  per- 
mit, attended  to  the  duty  assigned  them,  beg  leave 
to  report : 

"  '  1.  That  the  establishment  of  a  seminary  within 
the  bounds  of  this  conference  is  expedient  and  nec- 
essary. 

" '  2.  The  place  where  we  have  a  prospect  of  the 
most  ample  funds  for  the  purpose  is  in  the  town  of 
Augusta,  on  the  Ohio  River. 

" 1 3.  Inasmuch  as  the  Ohio  Annual  Conference 
have  adopted  measures  toward  a  union  with  this  con- 
ference in  the  establishment  of  a  seminary  at  that 
place,  it  is  our  opinion  that  a  union  of  the  two  con- 
ferences is  expedient. 

" 1 4.  That  it  is  expedient  for  this  conference  to 
appoint  a  committee,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  confer 
with  the  committee  of  the  Ohio  Conference,  and  to 
take  such  measures  in  favor  of  the  contemplated  es- 
tablishment as  they  may  think  advisable;  provided 
they  do  not  place  themselves  or  this  conference  liable 
to  expense. 

" '  5.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  this  conference,  in 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  199 

case  of  success  in  such  establishment,  to  take  the  most 
prudent  measures  in  their  power,  in  conjunction  with 
the  committee  of  the  Ohio  Conference,  to  secure  the 
influence  and  government  of  the  institution  to  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.'"* 

The  commissioners  appointed  by  the  Ohio  Con- 
ference were  John  Collins  and  Martin  Ruter,  while 
George  C.  Light  and  Marcus  Lindsey  represented  the 
Kentucky  Conference. 

On  the  15th  of  the  following  December  the  com- 
missioners visited  Augusta,  Ky.,  and  held  a  confer- 
ence with  the  trustees  of  Bracken  Academy, "  and  laid 
before  them  the  object  of  their  appointment,  and  also 
informed  them  that,  after  visiting  many  other  places, 
they  had  determined  to  locate  said  institution  at  Au- 
gusta, provided  a  little  assistance  could  be  obtained 
from  the  trustees  of  the  academy  and  the  citizens  in 
building  a  college  edifice  and  giving  the  institution  a 
start,  until  the  conferences  could  sufficiently  command 
their  resources,  when  they  would  amply  endow  the 
same  as  an  institution  worthy  the  people  for  whose 
benefit  they  were  laboring.  The  trustees  of  Bracken 
Academy  agreed  to  give  them  the  proceeds  of  the  fund 
in  their  hands,  and  all  the  principal  over  and  above 
the  sum  of  $10,000." 

"Several  individuals,  now  no  more,  entered  with 
laudable  zeal  on  this  work.  Among  them  was  Brother 
James  Armstrong,  the  distinguished  benefactor  of  the 
institution,  who  deeded  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  the  plat  of  ground  on  which  the  beautiful 
college  edifice  now  stands,  to  be  held  in  trust  for  col- 

*MS.  Journal,  Kentucky  Conference,  1821,  pp.  15,  16. 


200  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

lege  purposes  by  them  forever.  He  also  erected  the 
buildings,  and  was  looked  upon  as  the  distinguished 
friend  of  the  college  during  his  life."  * 

The  college  was  properly  chartered  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  Kentucky,  December  22,  1822. 

This  institution  was  soon  in  successful  operation. 
At  the  conference  of  1822  John  P.  Finley  was  ap- 
pointed president. 

To  properly  endow  an  institution  of  learning  re- 
quires effort,  energy,  perseverance.  In  endeavoring 
to  accomplish  this  task,  the  conferences  met  with 
much  to  discourage  them.  Under  all  the  embarrass- 
ments to  which  such  enterprises  are  exposed,  the  vast 
amount  of  good  that  resulted  to  the  Church  and  the 
country  from  Augusta  College  can  never  be  estimated. 
Over  its  fortunes  some  of  the  noblest  intellects  have 
presided ;  its  faculty  was  always  composed  of  men 
of  piety,  of  genius,  and  of  learning;  and  in  all  the 
learned  professions,  in  almost  every  Western  and 
Southern  State,  its  alumni  may  yet  be  found.  It 
gave  to  the  medical  profession,  to  the  bar,  and  to  the 
pulpit  many  of  their  brightest  lights. 

In  1831  Peter  Akers  had  been  appointed  "con- 
ference agent"  for  Augusta  College,  but  the  small 
returns  scarcely  justified  his  continuance  in  the  field. 

In  1838  the  Ohio  and  the  Kentucky  Conferences 
both  became  awakened  to  the  importance  of  more  active 
efforts  in  behalf  of  this  enterprise,  and  each  placed  an 
energetic  and  gifted  man  in  the  field. 

*  Extract  from  a  communication  by  the  Kev.  James  B. 
Finley,  published  in  the  Western  Christian  Advocate  of  July 
11,  1834. 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  201 

Edmund  W.  Sehon,  at  that  time  a  member  of  the 
Ohio  Conference,  was  chosen  by  that  body  for  this 
important  work,  while  a  similar  trust  was  committed 
to  H.  H.  Kavanaugh  by  the  Kentucky,  each  to  work 
within  the  bounds  of  his  own  conference.  No  two 
men  better  adapted  to  such  a  task  could  have  been 
chosen;  and  if  there  was  any  rivalry  between  them 
it  was  only  such  as  an  earnest  wish  to  accomplish 
good  would  warrant. 

For  several  years,  before  he  came  to  Kentucky, 
Edmund  W.  Sehon  had  been  prominent  before  the 
Church  and  the  country  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel. 
He  was  born  in  Moorefield,  Virginia,  April  14,  1808, 
and  was  converted  and  joined  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  September  20,  1824,  at  a  camp-meeting  near 
Clarksburg,  Virginia.  He  was  licensed  to  preach 
October  10,  1827,  by  William  Stephens. 

In  1828  he  offered  himself  to  the  Pittsburg  Con- 
ference, which  included  in  its  territory  that  portion 
of  Virginia  in  which  he  was  born  and  brought  up, 
and  was  accepted.  Belonging  to  one  of  the  best  fam- 
ilies in  the  State  of  Virginia,  of  fine  personal  appear- 
ance, with  a  mind  highly  cultivated,  his  manners 
polished,  and  distinguished  for  his  eloquence,  his 
burning  zeal,  his  fervent  piety,  and  his  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  Christ,  he  promised  great  usefulness  in 
the  Church. 

At  the  time  he  entered  the  Pittsburg  Conference 
Dr.  Bascom  was  president  of  Madison  College,  an  in- 
stitution of  learning  in. the  bounds  of  that  conference. 
A  strong  attachment  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Bascom  was 
formed  for  the  young  itinerant,  which,  on  the  part  of 


202  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

Mr.  Sehou,  was  fully  reciprocated,  and  which  grew 
into  the  warmest  friendship  in  the  hearts  of  both. 

Mr.  Sehon  was  appointed  to  Youngstown  Circuit 
as  the  colleague  of  Billings  O.  Plimpton,  and  with 
Ira  Eddy  as  his  presiding  elder  traveled  on  the 
Lewis  Circuit,  having  traveled  on  the  Redstone  Cir- 
cuit the  previous  year  under  the  presiding  elder. 
His  next  appointment  was  to  the  Monongahela 
Circuit  as  junior  preacher.  In  1831  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Ohio  Conference  and  appointed  to  the 
city  of  Cincinnati,  where  he  remained  two  years.  At 
the  conference  of  1832  he  was  appointed  agent  for  the 
Colonization  Society,  in  which  position  he  remained 
but  one  year.  In  1833  he  was  transferred  to  the 
Missouri  Conference  and  stationed  in  the  city  of  St. 
Louis,  but  at  the  close  of  the  year  returned  to  Ohio, 
and  was  stationed  in  the  city  of  Columbus,  where  he 
remained  for  two  years.  In  1836  we  again  find  him 
in  Cincinnati,  in  the  Western  Charge,  with  Cyrus 
Brooks  as  his  colleague,  and  the  following  year,  with 
David  Warnock,  he  preaches  to  the  same  congrega- 
tion. In  1838  he  was  agent  for  Augusta  College,  and 
in  1839  was  returned  to  Cincinnati,  and  appointed  to 
the  Eastern  Charge,  where  he  remained  two  years. 

At  the  session  of  the  Ohio  Conference  of  1841 
he  received  the  appointment  of  general  agent  of  the 
American  Bible  Society  for  the  West,  in  which  he 
continued  for  several  years.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
famous  General  Conference  of  1844,  and  amid  the  ex- 
citing scenes  of  that  occasion  he  voted  with  the  South- 
ern delegates. 

While  he  was  not  favorable   to  slavery,  having 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGIL  203 

liberated  several  slaves  that  he  inherited,  yet  he  did 
not  think  that  slavery  was  a  sin  per  se  and  regarded 
the  action  of  the  General  Conference  in  the  case  of 
Bishop  Andrew  as  a  violation  of  the  compromise  law 
of  the  Church. 

Finding  no  longer  any  sympathy  in  the  Ohio  Con- 
ference, and  unwilling  to  yield  his  convictions,  he 
availed  himself  of  the  plan  of  separation,  and  identi- 
fied his  fortunes  with  Kentucky  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  In  the  city  of 
Cincinnati  there  were  many  members  of  the  Church 
who  desired  to  adhere  to  the  Church  South,  and  hence 
his  appointment  to  Soule  Chapel  in  that  city  in  1846. 

Dr.  Sehon  was  no  stranger  in  Kentucky.  He 
had  been  present  at  several  of  the  annual  conferences, 
and  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  platform  had  captivated 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  His  adherence  to  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  gratifying  to  that 
branch  of  Methodism,  while  the  Kentucky  Conference 
received  him  most  cordially. 

In  1847  he  was  transferred  to  the  Louisville  Con- 
ference, and  stationed  at  Fourth  Street,  in  the  city  of 
Louisville.  A  great  revival  of  religion  crowned  his 
ministry  that  year,  in  which  more  than  one  hundred 
persons  were  converted  and  added  to  the  Church. 
The  following  year  his  labors  in  the  same  charge  were 
equally  blessed.  Unwilling  to  be  deprived  of  his  serv- 
ices, as  the  law  of  the  Church  would  not  permit  his 
appointment  for  the  third  year,  a  portion  of  the  mem- 
bers resolved  upon  the  formation  of  a  new  charge,  to 
be  known  as  Third  Street,  to  which  he  was  appointed, 
where  he  remained  two  years. 


204  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

III  1850  he  was  elected  by  the  General  Conference 
missionary  secretary,  which  office  he  continued  to  fill 
until  1868,  when  he  returned  to  the  pastoral  work. 
He  was  then  stationed  at  Shelby  Street,  in  the  city  of 
Louisville,  three  years,  and  then  on  the  Louisville 
District  four  years. 

In  1875  he  was  sent  to  the  Bowling  Green  Dis- 
trict, but  died  June  7,  1876,  in  full  hope  of  eternal 
life.  Dr.  Sehon  was  a  man  of  commanding  presence, 
fine  address,  and  polished  manners.  Remarkably 
gifted  as  a  preacher,  and  taking  high  rank  as  an  orator, 
and  as  a  platform  speaker  with  scarcely  a  peer,  he 
wielded  an  influence  for  good  during  the  long  period 
of  his  ministry,  laboring  with  uncompromising  zeal 
and  success.  Whether  he  bore  the  banner  of  the 
cross,  stained  with  Immanuel's  blood,  along  the  waters 
of  the  Monongahela,  or  proclaimed  its  hallowed  story 
on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  or  in  the  Queen  City 
of  the  "West,  or  whether  throughout  our  Southern 
land  he  invited  sinners  to  Christ,  hundreds  sought 
repose  and  safety  beneath  its  crimsoned  folds. 

The  fields  he  was  to  occupy  were  new.  He  had 
before  him  the  entire  State  as  the  theater  of  his  labors. 
He  had  shown  himself  an  able  polemic,  and  the  peo- 
ple were  familiar  with  him  as  a  preacher  of  command- 
ing talents,  but  as  a  platform  speaker  he  was  yet 
untried.  He  entered  upon  the  duties  he  had  accepted 
with  the  same  zeal  that  had  hitherto  distinguished 
him,  traversing  the  commonwealth,  reaching  almost 
every  county,  delivering  addresses  in  the  morning  to 
vast  assemblies,  and  preaching  to  immense  audiences 
in  the  evening,  until  his  name  became  a  household 


BISHOP  KAVANAUQH.  205 

• 

word,  and  his  life  the  synonym  of  all  that  is  noble 
and  pure.  His  theme  on  the  platform — the  education 
of  the  young — laudable  in  itself,  became  more  com- 
manding when  it  received  the  touch  of  his  Herculean 
mind  and  brilliant  oratory;  while  his  genuine  Irish 
wit  and  pleasant  humor  won  for  him  a  place  in  the 
popular  heart  from  which  he  would  never  be  displaced. 
With  what  success  either  Mr.  Sehon  or  Mr.  Kav- 
anaugh  met  in  collecting  funds  for  the  endowment  of 
Augusta  College  we  are  not  advised  ;  but  they  crowded 
its  halls  with  young  men  who  wished  to  prepare  for 
the  stern  duties  of  life.  Never  before  had  the  roll  of 
students  been  so  large  as  during  their  agency,  while 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  filled  so  well  the  office  of  superin- 
tendent of  public  instruction,  that  he  was  asked  to 
continue  it  by  Governor  Wickliffe  in  the  following 
administration. 


206  LIFE  AND   TIMES'  OF 


vii. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 
OF  1839  TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1842. 

IN  1839  Mr.  Kavanaugh  desired  to  return  to  the 
pastoral  work,  but  the  -interest  of  Augusta  College 
demanded  his  continuance  in  the  agency  he  had  filled 
the  previous  year  with  so  great  advantage  to  that  in- 
stitution. 

Dr.  Joseph  S.  Tomlinson  was  the  president  of 
Augusta  College,  and  Henry  B.  Bascora  professor  of 
moral  science  and  Belles-lettres,  at  the  time  he  was  the 
agent,  and  between  these  eminent  preachers  and  him 
the  warmest  friendship  existed. 

"  Joseph  S.  Tomlinson  was  born  in  Georgetown, 
Kentucky,  March  15,  1802.  His  parents  were  re- 
spectable, but  in  limited  circumstances.  His  father 
dying  while  he  was  a  child,  he  was  apprenticed  to  the 
saddlery  business,  in  which  he  soon  became  a  profi- 
cient. He  entered  Transylvania  University  an  orphan 
boy,  dependent  principally  upon  his  trade,  to  which 
he  laboriously  devoted  his  spare  hours,  for  his  sup- 
port. Anxious  to  complete  his  course  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible, he  applied  himself  with  indefatigable  diligence, 
and  in  due  time  graduated  with  honor.  In  early 
youth  he  was  converted  to  God,  and  joined  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church ;  and  some  time  before  he 
graduated  was  licensed  to  preach.  From  his  first  ef- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  207 

forts  as  a  public  speaker  he  was  hailed  as  a  youth  of 
extraordinary  promise  to  the  Church. 

"At  the  time  of  his  graduation  at  Lexington,  the 
friends  of  our  infant  college  at  Augusta,  at  that  time 
the  only  institution  of  its  grade  under  the  patronage 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  then  strug- 
gling for  existence,  were  in  want  of  a  competent  pro- 
fessor, and  Tomlinson,  young  as  he  was,  was  selected 
for  the  place,  and  accepted  the  important  trust.  He 
immediately  hastened  to  the  field  of  his  future  labors, 
where  for  nearly  thirty  years,  with  the  exception  of 
a  few  brief  intervals,  on  account  of  declining  health, 
he  faithfully  toiled  at  his  post.  Here  he  severely 
taxed  all  the  energies  of  his  powerful  intellect  and 
feeble  body  in  advancing  the  cause  of  learning  and 
the  interests  of  religion.  That  his  labors  Avere  abun- 
dant here  will  appear  from  the  fact  that,  in  consequence 
of  the  frequent  vacancies  in  the  faculty,  it  became 
necessary  that  at  different  periods  he  should  occupy 
different  chairs.  At  one  period  he  was  professor  of 
languages,  at  another  of  mathematics,  then  of  natural 
science,  then  of  moral  philosophy  and  Belles-lettres, 
In  every  department  of  instruction  he  determined  to 
be  a  master ;  and  so  he"  was.  But  to  accomplish  this 
required  intense  study  and  indefatigable  application, 
which  seriously  impaired  his  health.  Indeed,  he  was 
long  a  confirmed  dyspeptic,  and  the  morbid  sensitive- 
ness of  the  dyspeptic  invalid  is  matter  of  general  no- 
toriety. 

"  In  1825  he  was  admitted  into  the  traveling  con- 
nection, and  regularly  graduated  to  the  offices  of  dea- 
con and  elder.  At  a  comparatively  early  period  of 


208  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

his  career,  and  when  literary  institutions  bestowed 
their  honors  with  less  profusion  than  at  present,  he 
was  deemed  worthy  to  receive,  and  had  conferred  upon 
him,  the  degree  of  D.  D.,  which  honor  he  wore  with 
dignified  modesty.  For  a  number  of  years  Dr.  Tom- 
linson  was  president  of  Augusta  College,  in  which  po- 
sition he  remained  until  it  was  broken  down  by  the 
withdrawal  of  the  patronage  of  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence, and  the  repeal  of  its  charter  by  the  Legislature 
of  that  State.  Subsequently  the  doctor  was  elected  to 
a  professorship  in  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  at 
Delaware,  but  did  not  accept,  though  he  acted  for 
two  years  as  agent  for  that  institution.  He  was  next 
elected  to  a  professorship  in  the  Ohio  University,  at 
Athens.  This  appointment,  with  much  persuasion,  he 
accepted,  and  served  one  year,  at  the  expiration  of 
which  he  was  elected  president  of  that  institution. 
This  appointment  he  declined  because  of  ill  health 
and  almost  entire  mental^  prostration,  produced  by 
what  he  deemed  the  greatest  calamity  of  his  life — the 
sudden  and  melancholy  death  of  a  favorite  son  by 
cholera.  The  doctor  inherited  a  strong  predisposition 
to  mental  derangement,  as  is  proven  by  well-known 
facts  in  the  history  of  his  family ;  and  from  the  sud- 
den death  of  his  son,  which  fell  upon  him  like  a  pa- 
ralysis, combining  with  other  causes,  his  mind  began 
to  waver.  The  bold  and  fearless  man  became  the 
irresolute  and  timid  child.  His  energies  were  pros- 
trated, and  soon  his  friends  saw  with  alarm  that  he 
was  rapidly  becoming  the  victim  of  a  most  melan- 
choly form  of  mental  derangement.  He  was,  how- 
ever, subsequently  twice  elected  to  responsible  posi- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  209 

tions — to  the  Springfield  High-school,  and  the  State 
University  of  Indiana — both  of  which  he  declined,  for 
the  reasons  above  stated.  Although  for  a  number  of 
the  last  months  of  his  life  he  had  momentary  lucid 
intervals  of  apparent  sunshine,  yet  the  darkening  clouds 
gradually  condensed  around  and  above  him,  until,  as 
he  repeatedly  declared  to  the  writer,  his  agony  became 
insupportable,  and  he  incapable  of  resistance  or  self- 
control  ;  and  yet  when  drawn  out,  the  charms  of  his 
conversation,  the  perspicuity  and  power  of  his  ser- 
mons, and  the  unction  of  his  prayers,  partially  con- 
cealed the  deep  and  hidden  tendency  to  mental  alien- 
ation. He,  however,  repeatedly  stated  that  domestic 
difficulties  had  no  agency  in  the  matter — that  he  had 
one  of  the  most  agreeable  families  in  the  world.  This 
state  of  things  continued  until  Saturday,  June  4, 1853, 
when  the  tragical  event  of  his  death  occurred.  We 
would  gladly  draw  the  veil  of  oblivion  over  the  scene, 
but  the  fact  has  gone  abroad — he  fell  by  his  own  hand. 
"  Dr.  Tomlinson  possessed  a  mild  and  amiable  dis- 
position, cultivated  the  social  principle,  and  enjoyed 
society  in  a  high  degree.  He  was  an  accomplished 
gentleman.  As  a  husband,  he  was  kind  and  affection- 
ate ;  as  a  parent,  tenderly  indulgent.  He  was  endowed 
by  nature  with  a  rich  and  vigorous  intellect,  which 
was  thoroughly  cultivated.  He  was  a  ripe  scholar. 
As  a  teacher  and  governor,  he  was  skillful,  prudent, 
and  faithful ;  as  a  preacher,  he  was  considered  a  model — 
argumentative,  persuasive,  pathetic.  He  was  pro- 
nounced by  a  competent  judge,  though  no  personal 
friend,  '  the  ablest  debater  in  America.'  As  a  Chris- 
tian, he  was  exemplary  and  uniform  in  the  discharge 

18 


210  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

of  religious  duty;  and  while  he  was  almost  constantly 
reproaching  himself,  he  never  spoke  unkindly  of  a  fel- 
low-being. That  the  life  of  such  a  man  should  have 
such  a  termination  is  matter  of  painful  reflection,  but 
to  which  it  is  a  duty  to  submit,  as  to  other  inscruta- 
ble permissions  of  Him  '  whose  ways  are  perfect.'  "  * 

When  we  were  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Kentucky 
Conference,  in  the  Autumn  of  1837,  Dr.  Tomlinson 
was  the  president  of  Augusta  College,  and  was  re- 
garded not  only  as  one  of  the  most  gifted  members 
of  the  conference,  but  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  of  American  Methodism.  Whether  as  a  debater 
upon  the  floor  of  the  conference,  or  as  a  preacher  of 
the  Gospel  of  Christ,  he  not  only  commanded  the  re- 
spect, but  claimed  the  admiration  of  all  who  knew 
him.  Coming  up  from  the  ranks  of  humble  life,  and 
having  to  grapple  with  poverty  in  childhood  and 
youth,  yet  by  his  own  indomitable  energy  acquiring 
a  thorough  classical  education,  he  not  only  demon- 
strated his  aptitude  for  the  elevated  position  in  which 
he  had  been  placed  by  his  brethren,  but  he  stood  a 
living  example  to  young  men  in  the  ministry  of  how 
much  might  be  accomplished  by  untiring  industry  and 
perseverance.  Amiable  in  his  manners  and  mild  in 
his  disposition,  he  was  a  universal  favorite. 

In  1832  he  was  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence— the  first  that  was  held  after  he  was  eligible — 
and  in  1840  his  name  stands  first  in  the  list  of  the 
delegates  from  Kentucky. 

Our  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Tomlinson  until  1843 
was  only  such  as  might  exist  between  two  preachers 

*  General  Minutes,  vol.  v.,  pp.  295,  296. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  211 

the  difference  in  whose  ages  separated  them  widely, 
and  who  only  met  once  a  year  at  an  annual  confer- 
ence. This  year  we  were  appointed  to  the  Minerva 
Circuit,  embracing  Augusta,  where  he  resided.  From 
the  time  we  entered  upon  our  labors  on  that  circuit 
until  our  term  of  service  expired,  we  knew  him  in- 
timately. The  General  Conference  of  1844  met  dur- 
ing our  pastorate  in  that  charge,  and  although  it  was 
evident  that  the  action  of  that  body  in  the  case  of 
Bishop  Andrew  would  result  in  the  division  of  the 
Church,  yet  we  had  no  disturbance  in  our  field  of 
labor  until  after  the  session  of  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence subsequent  to  the  adjournment  of  the  General 
Conference.  At  the  annual  conference  of  1844,  we 
were  reappointed  to  the  same  charge.  The  previous 
year  had  been  one  of  marked  prosperity  to  the  Church 
in  that  circuit.  Between  five  and  six  hundred  souls 
had  been  converted  and  joined  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church. 

The  second  year  opened  with  indications  of  greater 
prosperity  than  the  first.  While  the  tide  of  religious 
emotion  was  sweeping  over  that  portion  of  the  State, 
and  the  ranks  of  our  Zion  were  being  rapidly  swelled, 
Dr.  Tomlinson,  who  had  taken  his  position  with  the 
majority  in  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  resolved 
to  carry,  by  his  magic  influence,  the  Minerva  Circuit 
with  the  Northern  division  of  the  Church.  The 
General  Conference  had  adopted  the  two  following 
resolutions : 

"  1.  That,  should  the  annual  conferences  in  the 
slave-holding  States  find  it  necessary  to  unite  in  a 
distinct  ecclesiastical  connection,  the  following  rule 


212  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

shall  be  observed  with  regard  to  the  northern  bound- 
ary of  such  connection :  All  the  societies,  stations, 
and  conferences  adhering  to  the  Church  in  the  South 
by  a  vote  of  a  majority  of  the  members  of  said  soci- 
eties, stations,  and  conferences,  shall  remain  under 
the  unmolested  pastoral  care  of  the  Southern  Church ; 
and  the  ministers  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
shall  in  no  wise  attempt  to  organize  Churches  or  so- 
cieties within  the  limits  of  the  Church  South,  nor 
shall  they  attempt  to  exercise  any  pastoral  oversight 
therein ;  it  being  understood  that  the  ministry  of  the 
South  reciprocally  observe  the  same  rule  in  relation 
to  stations,  societies,  and  conferences,  adhering,  by 
vote  of  a  majority,  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church;  provided,  also,  that  this  rule  shall  apply 
only  to  societies,  stations,  and  conferences  bordering 
on  the  line  of  division,  and  not  to  interior  charges, 
which  shall,  in  all  cases,  be  left  to  the  care  of  that 
Church  within  whose  territory  they  are  situated. 

"2.  That  ministers,  local  and  traveling,  of  every 
grade  and  office  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
may,  as  they  prefer,  remain  in  that  Church,  or,  with- 
out blame,  attach  themselves  to  the  Church  South."* 

The  Minerva  Circuit  was  an  appointment  on  the 
border,  and  came  under  the  provisions  of  the  above 
resolutions.  While  the  privilege  of  voting  an  adher- 
ence, North  or  South,  was  not  extended  to  interior 
charges,  yet  a  line  of  circuits  reaching  far  into  the 
State — believing  that  the  charge  in  which  Dr.  Tom- 
linson  resided  would  adhere  North,  and  by  this  means 
place  them  on  the  border — had,  one  after  another, 

*  History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  p.  91. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  213 

already  cast  their  vote  of  adherence  to  the  Northern 
division  of  the  Church.  It  was  this  consideration 
that  quickened  the  zeal  of  Dr.  Tomlinson  and  his 
friends,  and  this,  too,  invested  the  decision  of  that 
circuit  in  favor  of  the  Southern  branch  of  the  Church 
with  a  commanding  importance.  The  struggle  was 
severe ;  the  controversy,  however,  resulted  in  every 
society  adhering  to  the  Church  South,  except  the 
Church  in  Augusta. 

It  was  during  the  discussion  of  the  questions  in- 
volved in  this  controversy,  that  the  conviction  was 
forced  upon  us  that  Dr.  Tomlinson  was  deranged. 
We  had  labored  side  by  side  with  him  in  the  pulpit; 
we  had  associated  with  him  in  the  family  circle;  and 
now  and  then  we  had  feared,  and  expressed  the  ap- 
prehension to  friends,  that  he  was  occasionally  insane ; 
but  when  we  watched  him  closely  through  the  long 
and  anxious  months  during  the  discussion  of  the  great 
principles  which  divided  the  Church,  our  impressions 
became  fully  confirmed,  that  the  empire  of  reason 
was  tottering  to  its  fall,  and  that  his  majestic  inteHect 
would  become  a  fearful  wreck.  That  he  was  a  good 
man  we  have  no  doubt. 

Methodism  in  Kentucky,  in  1816,  was  distin- 
guished for  the  appearance  in  its  pulpit  of  a  young 
man  who  had  not  only  taken  rank  with  the  ablest 
ministers  of  the  Church,  but  was  attracting  more 
than  ordinary  attention  in  the  public  mind.  The  sun- 
shine of  fortune  had  not  smiled  on  his  early  years, 
nor  had  he  been  blessed  with  the  advantages  that  ed- 
ucation bestows.  Converted  in  childhood,  he  enters 
the  ministry  when  only  a  youth.  Grappling  with  dif- 


214  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

ficulties,  before  he  became  a  preacher,  that  seemed 
almost  insurmountable,  he  holds  them  in  abeyance  to 
his  wishes.  Not  conforming  to  certain  notions  then 
prevalent,  his  entrance  into  the  ministry  met  with 
opposition,  while  in  the  prosecution  of  his  work,  per- 
secutions bitter  and  relentless  pursued  him  at  every 
step.  Without  the  sympathy  of  the  Church,  to  the 
welfare  of  which  he  was  devoting  his  strength,  and 
opposed  by  many  of  his  seniors  in  the  ministry,  of 
whom  he  expected  encouragement  yet  courted  by 
other  communions,  he  spurns  their  propositions,  and 
remains  alike  unmoved  by  the  chilling  words  of  cen- 
sure or  the  warm  breath  of  praise.  Such  was  Henry 
Bidleman  Bascom. 

He  was  the  son  of  Alpheus  and  Hannah  Bascom, 
and  was  born  on  the  27th  of  May,  1796,  in  the  town 
of  Hancock,  Delaware  County,  New  York.  On  the 
18th  of  August,  1810,  he  embraced  religion,  and  in 
the  Spring  of  1811  he  joined  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  under  the  ministry  of  Loring  Grant. 
His  father  emigrated  to  the  West  in  1812,  and  set- 
tled in  or  near  Maysville,  Kentucky.  He  remained 
here  but  a  short  time,  when  he  removed  to  Ohio, 
about  five  miles  from  Maysville,  in  the  direction  of 
Ripley,  where  he  located  permanently. 

The  poverty  of  the  family,  which  was  large,  made 
it  necessary  for  Henry  to  labor  constantly  for  their 
support  at  a  period  when  he  should  have  enjoyed  the 
advantages  of  a  school.*  Willing  to  perform  any 
kind  of  labor  that  would  render  lighter  the  heavy 

*He  never  went  to  school  after  he  was  twelve  years  of 
age. — Ifenkle's  Life  of  Bascom,  p.  18. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGIL  215 

burden  that  rested  upon  his  father,  we  find  him  at 
one  time  engaged  in  the  humble  pursuit  of  driving 
u  dray. 

Impressed  with  the  conviction  that  he  ought  to 
preach  the  Gospel,  and  unable  to  see  the  path  of  duty 
in  another  profession  or  pursuit,  at  fifteen  years  of 
age  he  is  exercising  his  gifts  as  an  exhorter.  In  the 
month  of  February,  1813,  he  was  licensed  to  preach 
by  James  Quinn,  and  was  immediately  appointed  by 
Mr.  Quinn  to  the  Brush  Creek  Circuit,  as  colleague 
of  Robert  W.  Finley.  Both  in  his  sphere  as  an  ex- 
horter and  in  his  first  efforts  to  preach,  he  attracted 
no  inconsiderable  attention.  His  deep  piety,  no  less 
than  his  commanding  talents,  and  his  zeal  for  the 
cause  of  the  Redeemer,  made  an  impression  upon  the 
community  wherever  he  labored. 

He  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Ohio  Conference 
in  1813,  and  appointed  to  the  Deer  Creek  Circuit, 
and  the  following  year  to  the  Guyandotte  Circuit — 
the  latter  in  the  State  of  Virginia. 

Highly  appreciated  as  Mr.  Bascom  was  in  the 
fields  of  labor  which  he  had  served,  and  faithfully  as 
he  had  discharged  his  duties,  the  prejudice  that  ex- 
isted in  the  conference  against  him,  growing  out  of 
his  fine  personal  appearance  and  his  ornate  style  in 
the  pulpit,  prevented  his  admission  into  full  connec- 
tion and  his  election  to  deacon's  orders.  No  objection 
was  brought  against  his  piety,  or  his  attention  to  the 
several  duties  that  devolved  on  a  traveling  preacher; 
but  he  did  "  not  either  dress  or  look  like  a  Method- 
ist preacher."  And  this  was  sufficient  to  place  him 
under  distrust.  He  was  continued  on  trial,  with  con- 


216  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

siderable  opposition,  and  appointed  to  the  Mad  River 
Circuit,  "  extending  from  the  frontier  settlements  west 
of  the  Great  Miami,  eastward  on  to  the  Scioto,  and 
northward  into  the  Indian  country."  This  was  one 
of  the  most  laborious  and  difficult  fields  in  the  West. 
He  entered  upon  his  work  immediately  upon  the  close 
of  the  conference,  and  labored  with  all  the  energy  of 
which  he  was  capable.  On  the  Guyandotte  Circuit 
he  had  received  but  twelve  dollars  and  ten  cents  for  his 
year's  services;  but  still  he  murmured  not.  Long 
and  dreary  rides,  poor  fare,  and  poor  pay,  difficulties 
and  privations  confronted  him  at  every  step ;  yet  he 
faltered  not.  He  closed  his  year's  labor,  and  feeling 
that  he  was  entitled  to  the  confidence  of  his  brethren, 
and  that  it  would  not  be  longer  withheld,  he  attended 
the  conference.  But  trials  again  awaited  him.  The 
men  who  had  before  passed  judgment  upon  him  were 
unwilling  to  reverse  their  unjust  verdict ;  and  al- 
though their  predictions  that  he  would  leave  the 
ministry  had  not  been  realized,  yet  the  style  of  his 
clothes  was  "  too  fashionable  for  a  preacher,"  and  they 
determined  to  subject  his  fealty  to  the  Church  to  fur- 
ther tests,  by  withholding  from  him  the  orders  to 
which  he  was  entitled.  It  was  at  this  conference  that 
Bishop  McKendree*  said,  "Give  me  that  boy;  I 
will  be  responsible  for  him." 

The  history  of  the  Church  scarcely  presents  an 
example  of  persecutions  so  groundless,  and  at  the 
same  time  so  relentless,  on  the  part  of  older  preach- 
ers, of  a  young  man  in  the  ministry,  as  those  endured 

*It  was  not  Bishop  Asbnry,  as  has  generally  been  thought, 
who  made  this  request,  aa  he  was  then  dead. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  217 

by  Henry  B.  Bascom.  At  an  age  when  temptations 
are  more  difficult  to  resist  than  perhaps  any  other, 
how  was  it  possible  for  him  to  breast  such  a  storm, 
while  he  could  no  longer  hope  that  its  fury  would  be 
spent?  True,  he  commanded  an  influence  over  the 
people  not  claimed  by  any  of  his  contemporaries ;  and 
in  the  conference  the  best  and  ablest  men — among 
whom  William  McMahon  was  prominent — were  his 
advocates.  Such  friendships  as  he  enjoyed,  while 
they  softened  the  sorrows  and  lightened  the  burdens 
of  his  heart,  were  not  sufficient  to  support  him  under 
such  trials.  As  we  have  contemplated  Dr.  Bascom  as 
the  most  popular  pulpit  orator  in  America,  there  has 
been  too  much  disposition  to  lose  sight  of  his  relig- 
ious character.  A  reference  to  his  diary,  kept  during 
the  early  periods  of  his  ministry,  presents  to  us  the 
source  to  which  he  looked  for  aid.  "  Felt  very  low 
in  spirits  ;  resorted  to  the  woods  and  prayed."  "  Spent 
the  evening  in  prayer  and  meditation,  and  felt  sens- 
ible manifestations  at  the  time  of  the  evening  sacri- 
fice." "  Rose  before  sunrise,  prayed  with  the  family ; 
retired  to  the  woods,  where  I  found  the  Lord  pre- 
cious." "  Rose  pretty  early,  fed  my  horse,  attended 
to  secret  prayer,  returned  to  the  house  and  prayed 
with  the  family."  "  Rose  very  early,  fled  to  the 
woods  and  prayed."  "  Feel  calmness  of  soul,  but  not 
so  much  engaged  as  I  wish  to  be.  Lord,  breathe  thy 
Holy  Spirit  on  me !"  "  Wrestled  in  prayer  at  my 
bedside,  then  went  to  the  woods  and  prayed." 

With  such  passages  his  diary  abounds,  and  in  them 
we  find  the  secret  of  his  fortitude  and  forbearance. 

At  the  conference  of  1816  he  was  transferred  to 
19 


218  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

the  Tennessee  Conference  and  appointed  to  the  Dan- 
ville Circuit  in  Kentucky,  and  the  following  year  to 
the  Danville  and  Madison,  with  William  Adams.  At 
the  conference  of  1818  Mr.  Bascom  was  appointed  to 
Louisville,  where  he  remained  for  two  years,  as  the 
first  preacher  ever  stationed  in  the  city.  His  popu- 
larity here  was  so  great  with  all  classes  that  a  petition 
for  his  return  the  third  year,  signed  by  a  large  num- 
ber of  gentlemen  not  connected  with  the  Methodist 
Church,  and  not  familiar  with  the  law  of  the  Church 
governing  the  pastoral  term,  was  sent  to  the  bishop 
presiding  at  the  ensuing  conference. 

At  the  conference  of  1820  Mr.  Bascom  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Madison  Circuit  as  junior  preacher, 
with  William  Martin  in  charge  —  who  had  at  this 
session  of  the  conference  been  admitted  on  trial — and 
the  following  year,  as  third  man,  on  the  Hinkstone, 
with  two  other  preachers. 

Already  sensitive  in  view  of  the  treatment  he  had 
previously  received,  he  regarded  his  position  on  these 
circuits — on  the  first,  being  placed  under  a  minister 
who  was  only  a  probationer,  and  on  the  second,  as 
assigned  the  third  place  on  the  circuit,  and  at  the 
time  when  he  was  courted  by  the  most  influential  men 
in  the  State — as  evidences  of  opposition  to  him  in  the 
conference,  and  hence,  in  1822,  he  was  transferred,  at 
his  own  request,  to  the  Ohio  Conference,  and  appointed 
to  the  Brush  Creek  Circuit.  The  following  year, 
through  the  influence  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Clay,  he  was 
elected  chaplain  to  the  Lower  House  of  Congress, 
being  at  the  time  of  his  election  stationed  at  Steuben- 
ville,  Ohio.  At  the  close  of  the  session  of  Congress 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  219 

he  spends  several  mouths  preaching  through  the  coun- 
try, and  in  several  of  the  Eastern  cities,  to  admiring 
thousands.  In  Annapolis  and  in  Baltimore  he  attained 
to  an  eminence  never  before  reached  by  any  preacher 
in  America,  and  was  regarded  as  the  first  pulpit  ora- 
tor of  the  world. 

He  attended  several  camp-meetings,  where,  before 
the  potent  weapons  of  truth,  as  wielded  by  him,  hun- 
dreds were  awakened  and  converted  to  God.  In 
Harrisburg  and  Philadelphia,  attracted  by  his  fame, 
thousands  waited  upon  his  ministry  and  heard  the 
Gospel  from  his  lips. 

In  1824  he  was  transferred  to  the  Pittsburg  Con- 
ference, and  stationed  in  the  city  of  Pittsburg;  and 
the  following  year  he  received  the  appointment  of 
conference  missionary.  In  Pittsburg  he  sustained 
the  reputation  he  had  won,  and  placed  the  Church  in 
a  position  far  more  elevated  than  it  had  previously 
enjoyed.  In  his  new  appointment  as  conference  mis- 
sionary he  had  a  field  for  his  mighty  talents  that 
would  bring  more  glory  to  God  than  any  he  had 
occupied  before.  He  was  received  with  enthusiasm 
everywhere. 

In  1826  he  was  stationed  in  Uniontown,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  in  1827  and  1828  he  was  president  of 
Madison  College,  located  in  Uuiontown,  Pennsylvania. 
The  inaugural  address  which  he  delivered  on  his  for- 
mal installation  into  office  as  president  abounds  in 
beauty  and  strength.  From  this  address  we  give  a 
few  extracts : 

"As  a  solitary  or  social  being  man  must  be  par- 
tially wretched  if  devoid  of  proper  instruction  ;  but  if 


220  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

possessed  of  the  advantages  of  education  nothing  but 
an  evil,  an  upbraiding  conscience,  can  make  him  mis- 
erable. In  the  city  or  the  desert,  in  a  palace  or  a 
cottage,  in  robes  or  in  rags,  standing  on  land  or  roll- 
ing on  the  ocean,  buried  amid  the  snows  of  Iceland 
or  burning  beneath  the  fervors  of  the  torrid  zone,  he 
has  resources  of  which  he  can  be  deprived  only  by 
the  Power  that  conferred  them.  Beggared  by  misfor- 
tune, exiled  by  friends,  abjured  by  society,  and  de- 
prived of  its  solace,  the  interior  of  the  intellectual 
structure  continues  unaffected  and  underanged  amid 
the  accumulating  wretchedness  without,  and  the  tem- 
ple of  the  soul  is  still  sacred  to  the  cherished  recol- 
lections of  (  Nature  and  Nature's  God.'  .  .  . 

"Let  memory,  for  a  moment,  sketch  the  desolate 
map  of  Greece.  Where  now  are  the  walks  of  Genius 
and  the  retreats  of  the  Muses,  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Ilissus,  and  the  Agora  of  Athens?  Where  is  the 
grove  of  Plato,  the  Lyceum  of  Aristotle,  and  the 
Porch  of  Zeuo?  We  have  to  repeat,  Alas!  Greece  is 
no  longer  the  theater  of  learning,  and  Athens  is  en- 
deared to  us  only  as  the  Alma  Mater  of  the  literary 
world ! 

"Visit  the  classic  but  profaned  ruins  of  Athens 
and  Rome,  and  ask. the  genius  of  the  place,  or  the 
page  of  history,  where  is  the  freedom  immortalized 
by  the  philippics  of  Demosthenes  and  the  orations  of 
Cicero,  and  the  one  and  the  other  will  answer,  Knowl- 
edge departed  and  liberty  was  exiled  !  Polished 
Greece,  therefore,  and  imperial  Rome  owed  their  dis- 
tinction to  letters.  And  what  is  it  knowledge  can 
not  achieve?  It  has  transformed  the  ocean  into  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  221 

highway  of  nations.  Steam,  fire,  wind,  and  wave,  all 
minister  to  the  comforts  and  elegancies  of  life.  The 
cold  and  insensible  marble  speaks  and  breathes.  The 
pencil  of  Raphael  gives  body  and  soul  to  color,  light, 
and  shade.  The  magnet,  the  mysterious  polarity  of 
the  loadstone,  conducts  man  over  the  bosom  of  the 
deep  to  the  islands  of  the  sea,  while  the  glass  intro- 
duces him  to  the  heavens  and  kindles  his  devotion 
amid  the  grandeur  of  a  thousand  worlds !  .  .  . 

"The  exceptionable  parts  of  the  works  of  these 
celebrated  models  of  taste  and  composition  (particu- 
larly Greek  and  Latin  authors)  will  be  carefully 
excluded;  but  you  will  find  much  to  admire  and 
much  that  is  worthy  of  imitation.  Even  here  you 
may  wander  with  Homer  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Simois  and  the  Scamander.  You  may  gaze  on  the 
beautiful  Helen  and  the  enraged  Achilles.  The  chiefs 
of  Greece  and  Troy  will  engage  in  mortal  combat 
before  you,  and  you  will  dissolve  in  tears  at  the 
meeting  of  Hector  and  Andromache.  Herodotus  will 
introduce  to  you  the  millions  of  barbarians  following 
the  standard  of  Xerxes.  The  brave  Leonidas  and  his 
Spartan  band  will  dispute  the  passage  of  Thermopylae 
before  your  eyes.  Victory  will  disgrace  Persia,  and 
defeat  bring  glory  to  Greece.  Horace  and  Virgil 
will  introduce  you  to  the  palatine  and  capitolitim  of 
Rome;  they  will  conduct  you  along  the  banks  of  the 
Po,  adorned  on  either  side  by  the  meadows  of  Man- 
tua; and  you  shall  regale  and  delight  yourselves  amid 
the  enchanting  groves  of  Umbria.  Go  on,  then, 
young  gentlemen,  and  seek  a  deserved  and  well-mer- 
ited celebrity ;  and  if  you  can  not  reach  the  summit 


222  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

of  Parnassus,  linger  at  its  foot,  and  imbibe  the  streams 
of  knowledge  and  science  as  they  gurgle  by."* 

Bishop  Andrew,  in  a  sermon  preached  before  the 
Louisville  Conference,  at  Greensburg,  Kentucky, 
September  21,  1850,  on  the  occasion  of  his  death, 
says: 

"  In  an  unfortunate  hour,  as  we  think,  the  Church 
called  him  away  from  the  active  labors  of  the  pulpit 
to  serve  in  her  literary  institutions.  Not  that  he 
lacked  any  requisite  qualification  for  the  chair  of  in- 
struction ;  but  it  has  seemed  to  us  both  a  pity  and  a 
wrong  thus  to  -have  fettered  and  caged  this  soaring 
eagle.  Methinks  he  should  have  been  left  free  to 
sweep  through  the  world  a  blazing  meteor,  and  to 
make  full  proof  of  his  ministry  in  a  field  better 
adapted  to  his  unequaled  powers.  The  pulpit,  doubt- 
less, should  have  been  his  only  battle-ground;  for  the 
pulpit  he  was  specially  designed  and  supereminently 
qualified  by  the  great  Head  of  the  Church.  If  those 
twenty  years  of  comparative  seclusion  in  college-halls 
had  been  given  to  the  active  duties  and  labors  of  the 
ministry,  we  can  not  refrain  from  the  thought  that  a 
far  richer  harvest  had  been  reaped  of  glory  to  God, 
good  to  man,  and  enduring  fame  to  the  preacher 

himself."t 

In  1829  he  was  appointed  agent  for  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  which  position  he  held  for  two 
years.  In  1831  he  is  transferred  to  the  Kentucky 
Conference  and  fills  the  chair  of  Moral  Science  and 
Belles-lettres,  in  Augusta  College,  to  which  he  had 

*  Henkle's  Life  of  Bascom,  pp.  186-188. 
t  Cross  of  Christ,  pp.  139,  140. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  223 

been  elected.  He  remained  in  Augusta  until  after 
the  conference  of  1841. 

"  Soon  after  tins  he  was  elected  president  of  Louis- 
iana College,  but  declined  acceptance.  He  had  also 
the  presidency  of  the  Missouri  University  tendered  to 
him,  which  he  also  declined. 

"  He  was  elected  president  pro  tern,  of  Transylva- 
nia University,  which  had,  by  the  trustees  thereof, 
been  oifered  to  the  Kentucky  Conference,  and  through 
them  to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  The  Kentucky  Conference  ap- 
pointed commissioners  to  act  in  behalf  of  the  confer- 
ence and  accept  the  proposition  of  the  trustees.  The 
commissioners  did  so,  and  nominated  Dr.  Bascom  for 
the  presidency  of  the  college,  but  he  declined.  He 
afterward  consented  to  act  as  president  pro  tern,  until 
a  more  permanent  organization  could  take  place ;  but 
the  difficulties  in  the  Church  between  the  North  and 
the  South  delayed  the  arrangement  anticipated,  and 
Dr.  Bascom  was  elected  permanently  the  president  of 
the  university.  Under  the  auspices  of  his  presidency 
the  university  rose  to  decided  prosperity. 

"About  the  year  1840  and  1841  the  honorary 
title  of  D.  D.  was  conferred  upon  him;  and  his  biog- 
rapher states  that  '  within  a  short  period  the  same 
honor  was  conferred  by  two  colleges  and  two  univer- 
sities.' In  1845  he  also  received  the  title  of  LL.  D. 
from  the  La  Grange  College,  Ala. 

"  Dr.  Bascom  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1844,  as  indeed  he  always  had 
been  since  the  General  Conference  of  1828 ;  but  at 
this  time  was  elected  from  the  Kentucky  Conference, 


224  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

getting  all  the  votes  of  the  conference  except,  I  think, 
only  three.  The  extensive  and  valuable  service  ren- 
dered by  him  in  that  trying  crisis  of  the  Church  is 
a  matter  of  history.  He  was  the  author  of  the  pro- 
test offered  by  the  Southern  delegates  against  the 
action  of  that  conference  in  the  cases  of  Harding, 
of  the  Baltimore  Conference,  and  of  Bishop  An- 
drew, and  of  other  documents  bearing  on  the  same 
questions. 

"  In  1845  the  convention  of  delegates  of  the  sev- 
eral annual  conferences  in  the  South  met  in  the  city 
of  Louisville,  Ky. ;  and  it  being  ascertained  that  the 
people  of  the  South,  or  rather  the  Southern  members 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  were  in  favor  of 
a  Southern  organization  of  the  Methodist  Church  by 
a  ratio  of  six  to  one,  it  was  determined  to  take  the 
necessary  measures  to  eifect  the  organization  de- 
manded, and  Dr.  Bascom  was  called  on  to  write  the 
report  of  the  committee  on  that  subject.  That  doc- 
ument was  worthy  of  the  ability  of  the  distinguished 
author,  and  of  the  able  body  of  ministers  which 
adopted  it. 

"In  1846  Dr.  Bascom,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  Avhich  met  at  Petersburg,  Va.,  pre- 
sented to  that  body  the  proposition  of  the  trustees  of 
Transylvania  University,  making  a  tender  of  the  uni- 
versity to  that  conference,  and,  on  its  acceptance, 
presented  his  resignation  as  the  president,  and  also 
the  resignation  of  all  the  faculty  of  the  university, 
that  it  might  be  officered  again  by  the  nomination  of 
the  General  Conference;  whereupon  the  conference 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGH.  225 

placed  Dr.  Bascom  in  nomination  again  to  the  trustees 
as  president  of  the  university. 

"  The  same  conference  also  established  a  Quar- 
terly Review,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  elected  Dr.  Bascom  the 
editor.  He  was  also  appointed  by  the  same  General 
Conference  the  chairman  of  the  board  of  commis- 
sioners of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to 
settle  the  controversy  between  the  Methodist  Churches, 
North  and  South.  He  was  now  oppressed  with  busi- 
ness, all  of  which  was  of  a  heavy  and  responsible 
character,  and  he  sustained  himself  well  in  all  these 
departments. 

"  In  the  year  1849  Dr.  Bascom  prepared  a  volume 
of  sermons  for  publication.  This  was  an  object  gen- 
erally and  greatly  desired.  The  volume  was  issued 
early  in  the  year  1850,  in  the  city  of  Louisville.  It 
met,  as  might  well  have  been  expected,  with  a  very 
rapid  and  extensive  sale."  * 

"  He  seldom  made  speeches,  and  never  long  ones, 
in  annual  or  general  conferences.  But  his  interest 
was  always  awake,  his  judgment  was  always  sound 
and  to  be  relied  on ;  and  when  an  emergency  required 
it,  the  force  of  his  superior  intellect  was  always  put 
under  contribution.  He  had  the  far-seeing  views  of 
a  statesman,  and  a  nerve,  energy,  and  address  in 
keeping.  He  was  at  the  farthest  possible  remove 
from  the  mere  dreamy  sentimentalist,  or  the  'fussy* 
man  of  talk.  The  versatility  of  his  powers  and  the 
practical  bent  of  his  genius  are  illustrated  by  a  ref- 

*  Bishop  Kavanauph,  in  General  Minutes  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  p.  813. 


226  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

erence  to  the  prominent  part  he  took  in  the  most 
important  transition  known  to  American  Methodism, 
the  division  of  the  Church.  It  is  not  saying  too 
much  to  affirm  that  his  adhesion  to  the  Southern 
cause  was  the  crisis  of  a  great  movement  which,  un- 
der the  blessing  of  God,  has  given  peace  and  the 
promise  of  an  uninterrupted  progress  in  prosperity  to 
the  Southern  annual  conferences.  He  had  attended 
the  meetings  of  the  Southern  delegates,  at  which  the 
solemn  question  of  separation  from  the  North  was 
anxiously  debated.  With  keen  eye,  but  closed  lip,  he 
had  watched  the  progress  of  the  debate. 

" '  Deep  on  his  front  engraved, 
Deliberation  sat,  and  public  care.' 

"  When  the  moment  for  action  was  come,  he  rose 
and  walked  to  the  chairman's  seat,  and  announced 
that  he  was  prepared  to  peril  all  upon  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  movement,  and  to  give  his  full  adhesion 
and  support  to  the  Southern  cause.  The  effect  was 
electrical.  The  Western  delegations  immediately  came 
forward,  and  to  a  man  committed  themselves  fully  to 
the  same  cause.  The  battle  was  won.  By  acclama- 
tion, Dr.  Bascom  was  requested  to  draw  up  a  protest 
against  the  offensive  action  of  the  majority  of  the 
General  Conference.  The  masterly  paper  which  he 
produced  in  a  short  time  exhibited  his  vast  power  of 
original  and  searching  analysis,  and  his  familiar  ac- 
quaintance with  the  principles  of  constitutional  law. 
Its  chain  of  argumentation  is  so  cogent  and  luminous 
that  Dr.  Dixon,  a  representative  of  the  British  Wes- 
leyan  Church,  pronounced  it  ( one  of  the  most  power- 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGH.  227 

ful  and  eloquent  state  documents  ever  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  reader.'  The  part  taken  by  Dr.  Bascom 
in  this  affair  cost  him  the  loss  of  many  a  Northern 
friend,  and  exposed  him  to  many  assaults  on  the  part 
of  the  Northern  Methodist  press;  but  it  establishes  a 
claim  to  the  gratitude  and  aifectiou  of  Southern  hearts 
which  no  lapse  of"  time  can  weaken."  * 

We  give  the  following  notice  of  Mr.  Bascom  from 
the  pen  of  the  Rev.  John  Newland  Maffitt,  himself, 
at  the  time  he  writes,  one  of  the  finest  orators  of  the 
country : 

"  I  consider  Mr.  Bascom  one  of  the  most  extraor- 
dinary men  of  the  age.  As  a  pulpit  orator,  he  is  an 
original,  and  is  unrivaled  in  the  Union,  for  none  are 
like  him.  His  path  is  emphatically  his  own,  denying 
the  possibility  of  comparison  with  that  of  others. 
His  shining,  therefore,  dims  no  other  light.  He  is 
the  solitary  star  that  fills  with  a  flood  of  effulgence 
the  skies  of  his  own  creation,  and  gilds  with  loveli- 
ness the  forms  which  have  arisen  at  the  call  of  his 
genius.  His  manner  is  like  that  of  no  living  preacher. 
If  you  seek  to  find  the  model  on  which  he  fashions 
his  sermons,  it  can  not  be  found  in  the  libraries  of 
the  Old  or  Ne^vv  World.  If  you  would  know  the 
secret  of  his  strength,  you  must  fathom  the  depths  of 
an  intellect  rich  with  rare  and  peculiar  treasures ; 
you  must  add  to  this  the  intensity  of  emotion  Avith 
which  he  regards  every  subject  that  comes  within  the 
grasp  of  his  mind.  His  baptism  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  with  the  tongue  of  flame.  His  mind,  like  the 

*  W.  M.  Wightman,  D.  D.,  in  Biographical  Sketches,  pp. 
Ill,  112. 


228  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Olympic  wrestlers,  struggles  for  mastery  wherever  it 
grapples.  Let  him  encounter  "  the  gnarled  and  un- 
wedgeable  oak '  of  error  in  its  century-hallowed  form, 
and  the  contact  is  like  that  of  the  electric  fluid,  rend- 
ing and  illuminating  at  once,  but  not,  like  the  fabled 
bolt  of  Jove,  rendering  'sacred  what  it  scarred/ 
The  fortification  which  he  demolishes  is  ever  after 
contemptible  and  untenable.  .  The  votary  of  error 
under  any  banner  which  Bascom  may  stoop  to  assail 
ever  afterward  will  disown  his  flag,  and  be  ashamed 
of  his  former  inconsistency. 

"  It  belongs  only  to  a  kindred  mind,  partaking  of 
his  own  magnificence,  to  analyze  Bascom.  I  shall 
have  little  to  say,  except  in  general  descriptions. 
But  were  one  to  ask  me  what  is  the  secret  of  his  in- 
fluence— how  does  he  fill  to  the  roof  every  church  in 
which  he  speaks,  and  send  away  the  admiring  thou- 
sands of  country,  town,  or  city,  filled  with  astonish- 
ment and  rapture  or  shame,  repentance  or  praise,  at 
his  will — I  should  answer,  negatively,  not  by  his  ora- 
torical action,  for  of  this  he  has  but  little.  You  only 
see  that  he  is  in  earnest  by  the  bowing  of  his  head, 
even  when  he  is  engaged  in  holding  direct  converse 
either  with  God  or  man.  It  is  not  iy  the  power  or 
intonations  of  his  voice.  For  oratorical  display  his 
voice  would  be  considered  a  bad  one,  although  it  is 
fearfully  distinct  even  in  its  husky  whispers,  and  as 
rapidly  strikes  through  his  terse  and  keenly  polished 
periods  as  that  brightest  and  swiftest  of  created  ele- 
ments, to  which  the  coruscations  of  his  genius  may 
be  most  aptly  likened,  does  through  the  folds  of  a 
thunder-cloud.  The  audiences,  who  sit  open-mouthed 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  229 

and  breathless  before  him,  are  able  to  say  little  of  his 
manner  when  they  go  away.  The  subject  only,  and 
with  an  omnipotence  of  power,  has  stood  before 
them  either  as  an  angel  of  light  or  a  fearful  demon ; 
the  one  to  sing,  '  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men/ 
the  other  to  forestall  doom,  and  threaten  an  eternity 
of  woe. 

"  Reared  in  that  great  school  of  impassioned  ora- 
tory, the  West,  he  has  also  gained  the  concise  and 
logical  ratiocination  of  the  East.  Let  the  inflated 
individual  who  has,  in  his  boasted  researches  into 
philosophy,  never  gained  sight  of  the  shore  of  the 
great  ocean  of  truth,  where  the  child-like  Newton 
stood  and  only  picked  up  pebbles  in  his  own  estima- 
tion— let  this  vain  boaster  but  come  within  the  action 
of  Bascom's  intellectual  battery,  and  a  faint  smoke,  or 
the  mere  ashes  of  a  consumed  fabric,  will  only  be  left 
to  tell  where  once  he  stood.  Every  argument  silenced 
and  destroyed,  every  link  in  the  chain  of  error  bro- 
ken, every  false  refuge  of  lies  exploded,  every  dark  hid- 
ing-place of  sin  searched  as  with  that  streaming  light 
which  unhorsed  the  persecutor  Saul,  how  often  has 
the  infidel  found  himself  in  a  short  hour  bereaved  of 
his  all  on  earth,  his  all  for  heaven !  Then  might  he 
seek  Christ,  when  his  gods  had  been  demolished  be- 
fore his  eyes,  and  their  power  scattered  to  the  winds. 

"  Let  Mr.  Bascom  but  rebuke  an  ignorant,  a  sloth- 
ful, or  inefficient  ministry,  as  he  sometimes  does  in 
his  sermons,  and  truly  they  may  then  say  that  the 
scorching  flame  of  judgment  has  first  begun  at  the 
house  of  God — where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the 
wicked  appear?  The  pulpit,  in  his  view,  is  the  holy 


230  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

of  holies  of  the  new  dispensation.  The  call  of  God 
to  his  ministering  servants,  in  his  view,  is  the  awful 
commission  before  which  kings  should  stand  dumb ; 
and  the  man  who  bears  this  commission  ignorantly, 
or  unworthily,  or  sleeping,  or  selfishly,  may  dread 
that  the  fires  of  the  angel-guarded  Shekinah  will 
consume  him. 

"  Yet  Mr.  Bascom  does  not  wear  a  chilling,  de- 
mure look.  He  would  have  been  ejected  from  the 
ancient  and  honorable  sect  of  Pharisees,  both  on  ac- 
count of  his  short  prayers  and  unelongated  physi- 
ognomy. His  thoughts  are  solemn  as  the  dawn  of 
eternity;  yet  his  countenance  is  calm  in  purity  of 
purpose,  and  earnest  only  in  benevolence,  while  it 
overflows  with  the  expression  of  goodness  and 
amenity. 

"  To  say  that  every  subject  which  he  touches,  he 
ornaments,  is  not  expressive  enough.  He  does,  in- 
deed, ornament,  but  not  as  other  men  do,  by  studied 
phrase  and  sounding  epithets;  he  ornaments  his  sub- 
ject by  linking  it  to  some  grand  and  classical  associ- 
ation. For  this  purpose  he  holds  at  command  the 
treasured  lore  of  each  country;  he  has  the  sublime 
imagery  which  he  has  gleaned  from  earth,  air,  and 
ocean ;  he  has  the  key  of  the  past ;  he  reads  from  the 
roll  of  prophecy  the  revealings  of  the  future.  Images 
of  immortal  beauty  cluster  in  his  argument;  at  his 
bidding,  damnation  echoes  back  from  its  blackest 
deeps  the  howling  thunder  of  his  warning,  to  flee 
from  the, wrath  to  come. 

"  Let  him,  as  he  often  does,  plead  the  cause  of 
Africa,  and  you  will  see  the  ancient  cities  stir  with 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  231 

life  beneath  the  desert  sands.  You  will  see  her 
ancient  kings,  statesmen,  philosophers,  coming  up 
through  the  marble  ruins  of  once  proud  palaces,  to 
utter  their  voiceless,  because  unspeakable,  charge 
against  debased  Christendom,  for  enslaving,  soul  and 
body,  the  relics  of  a  noble  antiquity.  His  satire  is 
keen,  and  will  be  remembered,  although  the  polished 
arrow  may  wound  so  skillfully  and  with  such  exquis- 
ite science  as  to  make  the  pain  almost  a  pleasure  to 
the  sufferer. 

"  But,  as  an  honor  to  the  Methodist  communion, 
in  which  he  has  long  faithfully  labored  ;  as  a  bless- 
ing to  the  world,  a  leading  star  in  the  constellation 
of  American  literature,  eloquence;  and  above  all,  as 
a  faithful  and  successful  preacher,  the  thousands  of 
whose  seals  in  the  ministry  I  see  around  me :  if  I 
can  not  describe  him  or  emulate  his  powers,  I  can  yet 
pray  that  his  valuable  life  may  be  continued  long  on 
earth,  as  a  rich  and  peculiar  blessing."  * 

At  the  General  Conference  in  the  city  of  St. 
Louis,  in  1850,  he  was  elevated  to  the  episcopal 
office.  On  the  occasion  of  his  consecration,  he 
preached  an  able  and  eloquent  sermon  from  Galatians 
vi,  14,  from  which  we  give  the  following  extract: 

"  Many  and  great  have  been  the  triumphs  of  the 
cross;  but  much  remains  to  be  accomplished.  Take 
the  earth,  with  its  ten  hundred  millions  of  children, 
and  let  every  day  be  a  Pentecost,  with  its  three  thou- 
sand, converts;  and  even  at  this  millennial  rate,  more 
than  three  hundred  years  would  be  required  for  the 
world's  conversion.  Are  we  ready  for  our  share  of 

*  Rev.  J.  N.  Maffitt,  in   Western  Methodist,  Nov.  6,  1833. 


232  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

the  work  ?  Ministers  of  Christ :  Where  are  your 
tongues  of  fire  and  words  of  flame?  By  intention  of 
their  appointment,  Christian  ministers  are  eminently 
men  of  one  work,  and  they  should  keep  to  it.  What 
that  work  is,  we  have  seen,  and  would  to  God  we  felt 
it,  too!  All  is  change  and  vicissitude  about;  the 
world's  drama  is  unfolding;  the  games  of  life  go  on; 
passion  and  interest  enslave  their  millions ;  but  there 
stands  the  cross.  In  deep  and  high  allegiance  to  its 
claims,  let  its  creed  of  love  to  God  and  charity  in 
need  be  ours !  Our  position  should  always  be  deter- 
mined by  that  of  the  cross.  Calling  to  one  world, 
and  pointing  to  another — an  eminence  commanding  a 
view  of  both — the  foot  of  the  cross  should  be  our 
only  point  of  survey,  in  all  the  applications  of  influ- 
ence and  office.  God  forbid  that  we  should  glory 
save  in  the  cross !  Preach  it,  then,  messengers  of 
God  !  preach  it — not  as  the  mystic  monogram  of  the 
Rosicrucian ;  not  as  it  streamed  in  the  folds  of  the 
imperial  Labarum ;  not  -as  shrouded  in  the  dead  sanc- 
tities of  ages,  or  shrined  in  the  Pantheon  of  thought 
or  letters ;  but  *  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  the  power 
of  God.'  Let  its  ministers  preach  it  as  the  symbol 
of  a  living,  not  a  vanished  creed.  Let  them  preach 
it  as  achieving  for  all  what  no  man  can  achieve  for 
himself  or  confer  upon  another.  In  this  sign,  and  in 
no  other,  we  conquer;  nor  can  we  doubt  the  issue,  if 
faithful  to  our  trust.  Rob  us  not,  then,  of  earth  or 
heaven ;  rob  us  not  of  a  single  foe :  be  it  our  glory 
to  conquer  all !  The  cross  is  still  shedding  light  on 
path  and  goal,  just  as  it  did  when  first  pointed  to  by 
Paul ;  and  to  the  ministry  of  the  cross  we  would  say, 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  233 

Give  to  it  the  strength  of  youth  and  the  honor  of  age. 
It  will  inspire  you  with  the  courage  of  true  goodness, 
as  nothing  else  can.  Specially  charged  with  the  main- 
tenance of  this  high  trust,  blench  not  from  the  conse- 
cration and  purpose  of  your  work.  With  the  shadow 
of  the  cross  upon  the  dial  of  your  hopes,  and  await- 
ing the  close  of  the  struggle,  to  hang  your  shield 
upon  it,  and  leave  there  the  inscription,  'All  bless- 
ing, and  by  all  blest/  what  more  have  you  to  hope 
or  to  fear? 

"  The  cross  has  moved  in  advance  of  the  triumphs 
of  mind  for  fifty  generations,  and  yet  upon  every  trial 
is  exhibiting  new  and  hidden  powers.  No  craft  can 
circumvent,  no  ignorance  surprise,  no  failure  betray, 
or  emergence  perplex — nothing  can  thwart  its  pur- 
poses or  defeat  its  final  efficacy.  Do  your  duty,  and 
whatever  else  may  happen,  '  conquering  and  to  con- 
quer' shall  mark  the  progress  of  the  conflict  and  be 
the  record  of  its  close.  Assured  of  the  past  and  of 
the  present,  we  can  not  doubt  as  to  the  future.  More 
than  two  hundred  languages  are  embarked  in  its  ad- 
vocacy. Nations  heed  its  lessons  and  walk  in  its 
light.  In  this  light  and  from  these  lessons  they  learn 
their  duty  and  their  mission.  What  interests,  issues, 
or  memories  will  compare  with  those  storied  about 
and  in  relation  to  the  cross?  Who  can  trace  the 
deep  descending  lines  of  its  influence?  In  its  light, 
truth  and  example  will  travel  on  until  the  triumph  is 
complete,  and  the  lofty  fellowship  and  grand  enroll- 
ment, the  celestial  wonders  and  temple  inhabitation 
of  the  heavenly  world,  with  all  the  room  and  verge 
of  ever-unfolding  progress,  .shall  be  seen  to  connect 

20 


234  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

with  the  cross,  as  did  the  virtues  they  reward.  Our 
planet  and  its  races  do  not  limit  the  glory  of  the 
cross :  other  orders  and  relations  of  the  universe  must 
be  taken  into  the  account.  From  the  cross  may  be 
borne  lessons  of  instruction  to  beings  of  whom  we 
have  no  record.  Thence  light  may  be  thrown  upon 
distant  centers  of  existence  of  which  we  have  never 
heard.  Where  is  the  far-off'  world,  whose  intelligence 
and  virtue  may  not  receive  instruction  and  warning 
from  the  story  of  the  cross  ?"  * 

From  the  time  he  entered  the  ministry,  "  to  the 
Church — to  the  highest  interests  of  what  he  con- 
ceived to  be  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the  world — Dr. 
Bascorn  devoted  his  enthusiasm,  his  energies,  and  ac- 
tivities. He  did  this  without  reserve,  without  pause, 
and  not  without  strong  temptations  from  the  highest 
worldly  inducements  in  an  opposite  direction.  '  Poor 
and  embarrassed  as  I  am/  he  wrote  to  a  brother  min- 
ister, who,  under  the  stress  of  narrow  circumstances, 
was  looking  to  the  profession  of  the  law,  'I  am  re- 
solved to  have  no  client  but  Him  who  at  first  em- 
ployed me  to  plead  the  great  cause  of  human  salva- 
tion ;  and  I  know  my  fee  will  be  certain  aud  large/ 
What  things  were  gain  to  him,  those  he  counted  loss 
for  Christ.  Faithfully,  bravely,  and  to  the  end, 
he  stood  by  his  early  convictions  as  a  Methodist 
minister."  f 

"  In  the  distribution  of  episcopal  labor  between 
the  bishops,  among  other  conferences  the  St.  Louis 

*  "  Cross  of  Christ,"  pp.  44-47. 

tW.  M.  Wightman,  D.  D.,  in  "Biographical  Sketches," 
p.  110. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  235 

Conference  was  assigned  to  Bishop  Basconi.  The 
time  of  the  meeting  of  this  conference  was  July  10, 
1850.  The  low  state  of  the  waters  made  the  naviga- 
tion so  difficult  that  he  did  not  arrive  at  the  seat  of 
the  conference  until  Saturday,  the  fourth  day  of  the 
session  ;  but  this  brought  him  there  in  time  to  preach 
on  the  Sabbath,  and  ordain  the  preachers  elected  to 
deacons'  and  elders'  orders.  He  is  represented  as 
having  preached  exceedingly  well  on  the  Sabbath-day 
in  the  woods  to  an  audience  of  about  three  thousand 
persons. 

"  At  this,  the  only  conference  he  ever  attended  as 
bishop,  he  performed  his  various  duties  so  generally 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  conference  that  the  follow- 
ing commendatory  resolution  was  passed  by  the  con- 
ference : 

"'Resolved,  By  the  St.  Louis  Annual  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  that  we 
take  great  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to  the  ability, 
impartiality,  and  urbanity  with  which  Bishop  Basconi 
has  presided  over  the  deliberations  of  this  conference, 
and  to  the  dignified  and  affectionate  intercourse  which 
he  has  maintained  with  its  members,  endearing  him  to 
us  as  one  of  our  chief  ministers.  While  we  record 
with  peculiar  satisfaction  that  ours  is  the  first  confer- 
ence over  which  he  has  presided  since  his  election  to 
the  office  of  bishop  in  the  Church  of  God,  we  con- 
gratulate the  whole  Southern  Church  on  this  acquisi- 
tion to  the  general  superintendency,  and  confidently 
predict  that  the  distinguished  ability  which  has  char- 
acterized his  services  in  the  several  spheres  of  labor 
heretofore  assigned  him  by  the  Church,  will  be  eiiii- 


236  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

nently  displayed  in  the  new  and  higher  one  to  which 
she  has  now  called  him.' 

"After  the  adjournment  of  the  conference  the 
bishop  visited  the  Indian  Manual  Labor  School,  at 
Fort  Leaven  worth,  'with  which/  his  biographer  says, 
'he  was  greatly  pleased.'  He  also  visited  and  preached 
on  his  tour  at  Weston,  Booneville,  Lexington,  and  St. 
Louis.  His  last  discourse  was  preached  in  St.  Louis, 
in  the  afternoon  of  the  last  Sabbath  in  July,  1850. 
It  was  an  effort  of  great  power,  and  of  two  hours' 
continuance.  His  text  was  Heb.  i,  1. 

"  He  is  reported  as  arriving  at  Louisville  on  the 
2d  of  August,  much  debilitated  from  sickness,  and 
from  traveling  and  toil,  but  apparently  pleasantly  ex- 
cited in  meeting  his  brethren  at  the  Book-room,  where 
he  remained  nearly  all  day,  declining  his  dinner  for 
the  want  of  an  appetite.  Having  entered  his  passage 
for  his  home  at  Lexington  in  the  stage  for  the  next 
day,  on  invitation  he  lodged  with  his  old  friend,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Stevenson.  He  attempted  to  take  his  sup- 
per, but  for  want  of  appetite  had  to  decline  it.  He 
retired  to  bed,  hoping  to  be  better  by  morning,  and 
be  enabled  to  reach  his  home.  Dr.  Stevenson  and 
wife,  deeply  sympathizing  with  him,  gave  him  all  pos- 
sible attention,  affectionately  remonstrating  against  his 
attempt  to  go  home ;  but  deep  solicitude  urged  him 
to  make  the  trial.  At  3  o'clock  the  next  morning 
he  entered  the  stage-coach,  but  ere  he  had  passed  the 
city  limits  he  was  so  sick  as  to  be  convinced  that  he 
could  not  succeed  in  his  attempt  to  reach  home.  His 
sickness  so  affected  his  stomach  as  to  induce  vomiting, 
which  much  alarmed  some  of  the  passengers,  who  sup- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  237 

posed  it  a  case  of  cholera,  and  believing  it  contagious, 
were  very  anxious  that  he  should  get  out  of  the  coach 
and  let  it  proceed.  The  driver's  attention  being  called 
to  the  case,  he  was  asked  what  he  would  do.  He 
averred  that  at  the  risk  of  his  life  he  would  return 
Bishop  Bascora  to  his  lodgings  whence  he  had  taken 
him.  This  was  promptly  done.  So  that  in  an  hour 
after  he  had  left  his  friend  he  was  again  at  the  door. 
Being  kindly  received  and  restored  to  his  bed,  Dr. 
Stevenson  consulted  him  as  to  what  physician  he  would 
have,  and  he  authorized  him  to  call  in  Drs.  Bright 
and  Pirtle,  his  personal  friends  and  brethren.  Late 
in  the  evening  of  that  day,  feeling  much  better,  he 
proposed  starting  home  on  the  next  day,  but  his  phy- 
sicians objecting,  he  said  no  more  in  regard  to  it. 

"After  being  confined  about  a  week,  he  asked  Dr. 
Stevenson  to  be  seated  by  him,  affirming  that  he  was 
no  better — that  the  remedies  had  not  touched  the  dis- 
ease— that  the  symptoms  were  as  before.  He  remarked 
to  Dr.  Stevenson, l  The  truth  is,  I  have  been  strangely 
brought  to  believe  that  I  must  die!  My  temporal 
matters  are  not  as  I  could  wish,  though  I  will  try  to 
be  resigned  to  the  will  of  Providence.'  At  the  sug- 
gestion of  Dr.  Stevenson,  two  other  eminent  physi- 
cians, Drs.  Bell  and  Rogers,  were  called  in.  All  of 
his  physicians  manifested  a  deep  interest  in  his  case. 
His  numerous  friends  watched  with  eagerness  and 
deep  solicitude  over  him.  In  regard  to  them,  Dr. 
Stevenson  informs  us  in  his  notice  of  his  afflictions 
and  death,  he  exclaimed,  'My  friends,  O  my  friends! 
if  they  could  but  cure  me  by  kindness,  I  should  soon 
be  well ;  but  they  can  not  do  it.'  Dr.  Stevenson  in- 


238  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

forms  us  of  several  instances  of  his  expressing  his 
impressions  that  he  would  die.  On  one  of  these  oc- 
casions he  replied  to  him,  'Do  you  really  think  so?' 
He  answered,  l  Yes,  I  have  thought  so  all  the  while 
when  able  to  think  for  myself.'  And  says  the  doctor, 
*  He  spoke  with  much  confidence  in  relation  to  his 
future  happiness,  and  professed  the  most  satisfactory 
assurance  of  his  acceptance  with  God.'  On  another 
occasion  he  remarked  to  Dr.  Stevenson,  '  On  the  near 
approach  to  death,  as  in  all  my  past  life,  I  can  dis- 
cover no  rock  of  hope  on  which  to  rest  my  weary 
spirit  but  Jesus  Christ  as  revealed  in  the  Gospel ;  and 
should  I  ever  be  so  happy  as  to  obtain  some  humble 
seat  in  heaven,  it  will  never  cease  to  be  true  of  me 
that  I  am  but  a  sinner  saved  by  grace.'  A  solemn 
pause  ensued,  after  which  he  said,  (  True,  true ;  how 
true  it  is  that  all  our  help  and  hope  is  of  God,  through 
the  infinite  merits  of  Jesus  Christ ! '  Dr.  Stevenson 
announced  to  the  bishop  that  he  was  writing  to  Bishop 
Andrew,  and  asked  him  '  if  he  had  any  communica- 
tions that  he  wished  made  to  the  bishop.  He  looked 
at  me  with  much  earnestness,  and  said,  Yes;  say  to 
Bishop  Andrew  that  I  am  utterly  prostrate,  with  but 
little,  if  any,  hope  of  recovery ;  that  I  am  wholly  in- 
capable of  thinking  or  acting  correctly  on  any  subject; 
but  tell  him  from  me  that  my  whole  trust  and  confi- 
dence is  in  almighty  goodness,  as  revealed  in  tJie  cross 
of  Christ.' 

"  When  all  hope  of  his  recovery  was  relinquished, 
it  was  proposed  that  Dr.  Bright,  who  was  his  oldest 
physician,  and  a  local  minister,  should  announce  to 
the  bishop  that  his  end  was  nigh,  and  learn  from  him 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGll.  239 

an  expression  of  his  prospects.  The  doctor  asked  him 
directly  '  if  his  confidence  in  God  his  Savior  was  still 
strong  and  unshaken?'  To  which  he  promptly  re- 
plied, with  great  earnestness  and  self-possession,  '  Yes, 
yes,  yes!' 

"  With  this  strong  affirmation  of  his  final  hope  in 
a  single  word,  thrice  repeated,  in  an  earnest  and  em- 
phatic manner,  did  this  eminent  man  and  minister 
close  his  communications  with  the  world. 

"  Dr.  Stevenson  says :  '  He  was  evidently  in  .the 
full  possession  of  all  his  mental  faculties.  Never  did 
his  noble  brow  and  full-orbed  eye  evince  a  higher  de- 
gree of  intellectual  strength.  There  was  a  sublimity 
and  loftiness  of  bearing  in  the  whole  contour  of  his 
face.  An  indescribable  brightness  gleamed  out  in 
every  expression  of  his  countenance.  The  scene  was 
overwhelming.' 

" '  Perceiving,'  says  Dr.  Stevenson,  '  that  the  mo- 
mentous crisis  had  come,  as  if  moved  by  some  invisi- 
ble power,  we  all  at  once  bowed  around  his  dying  bed, 
and  while  we  were  thus  engaged  in  silent,  solemn 
prayer  to  Almighty  God,  without  a  struggle  or  a  groan 
he  sweetly  breathed  his  last.'"* 

The  death  of  no  preacher  of  the  Gospel  in  Amer- 
ica ever  produced  such  a  thrill  of  sorrow  throughout 
the  country  as  that  of  Bishop  Bascom.  The  press  ev- 
erywhere teemed  with  tributes  of  respect  to  his  mem- 
ory; but  the  Church  of  which  he  had  so  long  been  an 
ornament  was  clad  in  deepest  mourning.  Our  ac- 
quaintance with  him  commenced  in  the  Autumn  of 

*  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  in  General  Minutes  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  pp.  Si:»-815. 


240 

1837,  just  at  the  period  when  he  was  at  the  height  of 
his  fame.  In  his  personal  appearance  he  was  fault- 
less. "  His  hair  was  black,  and  rather  thin ;  his  eye 
was  also  black,  and  beamed  keen  with  sentiment.  His 
forehead  resembled  that  of  Daniel  Webster  in  lofty 
expansion;  it  seemed  the  very  throne  of  intellect. 
The  lips  were  thin,  and,  in  connection  with  the  chin, 
indicated  great  firmness  and  decision  of  character. 
The  general  cast  of  his  countenance  approached  a  calm 
sternness;  but  when  unbent  in  familiar  conversation, 
his  features  became  touchingly  fine.  His  voice  of  late 
years,  after  the  affection  of  his  throat,  was  somewhat 
husky,  but  it  left  sharp  and  distinct  upon  the  ear  the 
rapid  words  which  clothed  his  ideas.  At  its  best,  it 
must  have  possessed  an  untold  power  of  impression, 
and  sounded  with  the  ring  of  a  '  clear,  uplifted  trum- 
pet.' One  of  his  hearers  spoke  of  it  as  '  articulate 
thunder.'  His  gesticulation  was  natural,  evidently 
unstudied,  and  prompted  by  the  emotion  of  the  mo- 
ment. It  was  none  the  less  telling  on  that  account. 
Obviously,  it  was  his  wont  to  throw  himself  upon  the 
rushing  stream  of  passion,  without  thinking  at  all  of 
gesture,  voice,  or  manner." 

He  died  on  Sabbath,  September  8,  1850. 

In  1840  Mr.  Kavanaugh  returned  to  the  pastoral 
work  and  was  stationed  in  the  city  of  Maysville.  He 
had  been  but  little  in  this  part  of  the  State;  only  dur- 
ing the  time  of  his  agency  for  Augusta  College. 

In  this  charge  he  succeeded  John  H.  Linn,  who 
was  rapidly  attaining  to  eminence  in  the  conference. 
He  found  the  Church  in  good  condition,  the  labors 
of  his  predecessor  having  been  greatly  blessed.  From 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  241 

his  entrance  upon  his  work  he  had  every  thing  to 
encourage  him — large  attendance  upon  the  prayer 
and  class  meetings,  and  crowded  audiences  at  public 
worship.  Early  in  the  year  there  was  quite  an  awak- 
ening among  the  people  on  the  subject  of  religion, 
which  continued  to  increase  until  about  the  first  of 
January,  when  the  flame  broke  out  in  a  general  revi- 
val. The  meeting  was  protracted  through  several 
weeks,  and  resulted  in  the  conversion  of  many  persons. 

Never  was  Mr.  Kavanaugh  more  at  home  than  in 
the  exercises  of  the  altar,  and  no  one  was  more  suc- 
cessful than  he  in  pointing  the  penitent  sinner  to  a 
loving  Christ.  We  have  known  him  to  tarry  for 
hours  upon  his  knees  by  the  side  of  the  earnest  seeker 
of  religion  pleading  for  forgiveness,  whispering  words 
of  cheer  to  the  disconsolate  heart. 

The  ensuing  session  of  the  conference  was  held  in 
Maysville.  Bishop  Andrew,  who  was  expected  to 
preside,  was-  detained  at  home  by  the  illness  of  his 
wife,  and  Jonathan  Stamper  was  elected  president  of 
the  conference.  There  could  have  been  no  better 
choice. 

But  few  men  in  Kentucky  ever  held  so  warm  a 
place  in  the  affections  of  the  Church  as  Jonathan 
Stamper.  The  bare  mention  of  his  name  awakens 
memories  of  the  past  and  carries  us  back  to  scenes  we 
would  never  forget.  He  was  the  son  of  Joshua  and 
Jane  Stamper,  and  was  born  in  Madison  County, 
Kentucky,  April  27,  1791.  He  says: 

"  When  I  was  nineteen  years  of  age  a  camp-meet- 
ing was  appointed  to  be  held  about  eight  miles 
from  my  father's  residence.  A  number  of  young  peo- 

21 


pie,  mostly  females,  of  the  society  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, expressed  a  great  desire  to  attend  it.  Among 
these  was  my  sister,  who  had  embraced  religion  when 
quite  a  small  girl.  I  had  the  most  unbounded  confi- 
dence in  her  piety,  and  always  strove  to  gratify  her 
wishes  by  accompanying  her  .to  Church,  whether  far 
or  near.  She  asked  me  if  there  could  be  any  Avay 
devised  for  them  to  get  to  the  meeting.  I  replied 
that  there  was  one  way,  and  it  was  quite  an  easy  one; 
if  they  would  promise  to  pray  for  me  I  would  take 
them  in  the  wagon.  They  pledged  themselves  to  do 
so,  and  I  prepared  the  wagon,  in  which  we  all  rode 
to  the  camp-ground,  where  we  erected  our  tent. 

"  It  was  a  time  of  great  power.  The  people  of 
God  were  revived,  and  many  sinners  awakened  and 
converted.  I  listened  with  attention  to  the  word, 
and,  ere  I  was  aware,  found  my  cheeks  suffused  with 
tears.  I  left  the  ground,  and  retiring  to  the  woods, 
wiped  my  eyes,  braced  myself  up  to  the  extent  of  my 
power,  put  on  as  cheerful  an  air  as  possible,  and 
walked  back  to  the  camp.  Determined  to  hide  my 
feelings,  I  said  to  the  girls  on  entering  the  tent,  'I 
am  afraid  you  have  forgotten  your  promise  to  pray 
for  me,  because  the  Bible  says  that  the  prayer  of  faith 
shall  be  answered,  and  you  see  that  I  am  not  yet  con- 
verted/ This  remark  was,  of  course,  only  meant  for 
a  mask.  AVith  a  sad  heart  and  guilty  conscience,  and 
seeking  the  most  solitary  spot  that  could  be  found,  I 
gave  vent  to  my  feelings  in  the  bitter  tears  of  repent- 
ance. When  the  trumpet  sounded  for  preaching  I 
arose,  and  making  my  way  back  to  the  encampment, 
joined  the  congregation.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  243 

preacher  was  reading  the  secrets  of  ray  heart  and  ex- 
posing to  the  assembled  multitude  all  its  wickedness. 
The  prophet  said  to  me,  'Thou  art  the  man!'  and 
soon,  losing  all  self-control,  I  cried  aloud  for  mercy. 
When  the  invitation  was  given  I  was  the  first  one  at 
the  place  of  prayer,  and  faithfully  availed  myself  of 
that  blessed  privilege  whenever  it  was  offered  during 
the  continuance  of  the  meeting.  Many  were  converted 
on  my  right  hand  and  on  my  left,  but  there  seemed 
to  be  no  mercy  for  me.  Before  we  left  the  ground  I 
•joined  the  Church  as  a  seeker  of  religion,  persuaded 
that  by  so  doing  I  should  place  a  barrier  between 
myself  and  the  world,  and  more  effectually  loosen  the 
ties  which  bound  me  to  my  gay  companions.  This 
proved  to  be  a  correct  view  of  the  matter,  and  I  would 
urge  it  upon  all  seekers  of  religion  who  really  intend 
to  persevere  until  they  obtain  the  blessing.  A  mem- 
bership in  the  Church  of  Christ  is  a  wall  of  defense 
around  them ;  they  are  thrown  into  the  society  and 
possess  the  confidence  of  those  who  care  for  their 
souls,  and  such  associations  have  a  tendency  to  stim- 
ulate them  to  greater  and  more  constant  religious 
efforts. 

"At  the  close  of  the  meeting  we  returned  home, 
and  while  the  greater  portion  of  the  company  'went 
on  their  way  rejoicing/  I  was  disappointed  and  sor- 
rowful. The  burden  of  sin  rested  heavily  on  my 
spirit,  and  I  feared  the  allurements  and  probable  op- 
position of  a  giddy  world.  My  father  and  mother 
met  us  with  tears  of  joy,  and  assured  me  that  I  would, 
in  due  time,  realize  the  blessing  of  pardoning  mercy 
if  I  persevered  in  seeking  it.  I  uniformly  attended 


244  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  meetings  held  in  the  neighborhood,  and  spent 
much  time  in  prayer,  but  fell  into  the  common  mis- 
take of  looking  too  much  to  the  deeds  of  the  law  for 
justification,  and  failing  to  obtain  it  began  to  regard 
myself  as  too  great  a  sinner  to  hope  for  the  mercy  of 
God.  I  became  discouraged;  my  heart  grew  hard, 
and  Satan  tempted  me  to  give  up  the  effort  and  seek 
relief  for  my  wounded  spirit  in  the  pleasures  of  the 
world.  But  having  felt  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of 
sin,  I  was  afraid  to  do  this,  and  so  the  struggle  went 
on  until  I  reached  the  end  of  my  own  strength  and 
was  made  conscious  of  my  utter  helplessness  and 
dependence  upon  the  mercy  of  God  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

"At  the  end  of  three  months  another  camp-meet- 
ing was  held,  to  which  I  had  looked  forward  Avith 
absorbing  interest,  as  the  time  and  place  when  I  might 
find  the  blessing  so  long  and  so  ardently  desired. 
While  there  no  opportunity  was  neglected.  The  first 
on  my  knees  at  the  altar  of  prayer,  I  waited  hour 
after  hour  and  day  after  day,  but  could  find  no  relief. 
As  on  the  former  occasion,  the  work  progressed  with 
great  power,  and  souls  were  awakened  and  converted 
at  every  coming  together.  The  impression  took  hold 
upon  me  that  I  was  doomed  to  be  lost ;  and,  no  longer 
able  to  weep,  I  retired  to  the  woods  to  mourn  over 
my  dreadful  condition.  I  looked  up,  and  the  silent 
heaven  seemed  to  frown  upon  me.  I  looked  down, 
and  the  earth  beneath  had  a  voice  to  condemn ;  the 
trees,  the  grass,  and  every  object  in  nature  stood  forth 
as  witnesses  against  me;  the  soft  evening  breeze,  as 
it  fanned  my  cheek,  seemed  to  whisper  the  curses  of 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  245 

God  against  the  sinner;  and,  overwhelmed  with  men- 
tal darkness,  almost  despair,  I  threw  myself  upon  the 
ground,  and  groaned  aloud  in  anguish  that  words 
could  not  speak. 

"I  left  the  place  of  my  bitter  lamentation  and  re- 
turned to  the  encampment.  A  preacher  was  inviting 
mourners  to  the  altar.  I  paused  and  inquired  of  my- 
self, 'Am  I  a  mourner,  such  as  are  invited  to  come 
forward  for  the  prayers  of  the  Church  ?'  Then  this 
thought  came :  Surely  there  is  no  being  in  the  uni- 
verse who  needs  intercession  more  than  I  do;  it  will 
make  my  condition  no  worse  to  go,  and  it  may  be 
that  God  will  yet  pity  and  forgive.  The  very  thought 
presented  to  my  view  the  goodness  of  God  in  an 
enlarged  and  affecting  light;  hope  'sprang  up;  my 
heart  melted  into  tenderness,  and  my  eyes  overflowed 
with  tears.  I  did  not  wait  to  walk — I  ran.  I  fell 
prostrate  on  my  face,  a-nd  cried,  '  Lord,  if  it  be  possible 
to  save  a  wretch  like  me,  O  save  me  for  the  sake  of 
Jesus !'  In  a  moment  I  apprehended  the  fullness  of 
the  atonement  in  Christ;  I  saw  how  God  could  be 
just,  and  yet  the  justifier  of  them  that  believe  in 
Jesus;  and  claiming  an  interest  in  the  sinner's  Friend, 
instantly  felt  the  renewing  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
My  burden  was  removed,  my  guilt  absolved,  my  sor- 
row turned  into  joy,  and  my  lamentations  into  praise. 

"If  my  anguish  was  excessive  before,  my  joy  was 
inexpressible  now.  I  could  give  vent  to  my  feelings 
only  by  shouting  aloud  the  praises  of  God.  Every 
object  I  looked  upon  seemed  to  be  praising  him;  the 
leafy  branches  of  the  grove  in  which  we  worshiped 
seemed  laughing  with  joy  in  the  silvery  moonbeams; 


246  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

the  stars  in  their  silent  beauty  seemed  to  speak  forth 
the  Savior's  praises;  every  face  glowed  with  rapture; 
the  whole  creation  wore  a  new  and  lovelier  aspect, 
and  all  seemed  to  unite  in  one  universal  anthem  of 
praise  to  God  and  to  the  Lamb.  Love,  love  to  God 
and  man,  filled  my  soul  to  overflowing.  I  talked  to 
all  I  met  about  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
exhorted  them  to  seek  the  Lord.  I  saw  such  a  full- 
ness in  the  atonement,  and  such  freedom  of  access 
through  its  merits  that  I  was  astonished  at  myself  for 
not  having  comprehended  it  sooner.  So  clear  and 
powerful  were  my  views  that  it  seemed  to  me  I  could 
convince  the  most  unbelieving,  and  felt  deeply  im- 
pressed that  it  was  my  duty  to  invite  them  to  this 
fountain  for  sin  and  uncleanness."* 

In  the  Autumn  of  1810  he  entered  upon  a  life 
of  usefulness  to  the  Church  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gos- 
pel. A  vacancy  had  been  reserved  on  the  Fleming 
Circuit,  to  which  he  was  appointed  by  the  presiding 
elder.  He  remained  on  the  circuit  about  six  months, 
meeting  with  the  discouragements  that  so  frequently 
fall  to  the  lot  of  the  young  preacher,  when,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  failure  in  the  health  of  Eli  Truitt,  on 
the  Lexington  Circuit,  he  was  removed  to  that  field 
of  labor.  Reluctant  to  leave  a  people  whose  indul- 
gence and  kindness  he  had  shared  so  largely,  he 
nevertheless  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  his  brethren, 
and  entered  upon  the  labors  of  his  new  work.  The 
kindness  of  Charles  Holliday,  the  senior  preacher, 
added  to  the  forbearance  of  the  Church,  and,  above 


*  Jonathan  Stamper,  in  Home  Circle,  Vol.  I,  pp.  109,  110, 
111. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  247 

all,  the  success  that  attended  his  ministry  encouraged 
him  in  his  work,  and  at  the  following  conference  he 
offered  himself,  was  admitted  on  trial,  and  returned 
to  the  Lexington  Circuit.  In  portions  of  this  charge 
there  were  seasons  of  refreshing.  Two  camp-meetings 
were  held,  the  first  in  Jessamine  County,  in  the  month 
of  May,  and  the  second  in  August,  at  Robertson's 
Camp-ground,  in  Bourbon  County.  Thirty  persons 
professed  religion  at  the  former,  and  forty  at  the 
latter.  The  unquiet  condition  of  the  country,  how- 
ever, during  this  conference  year,  greatly  impeded  the 
progress  of  the  Church.  In  June,  1812,  the  Amer- 
ican Congress  declared  war  against  Great  Britain, 
while  the  Indians  had  commenced  hostilities  on  our 
northern  frontiers.  "  The  treachery  of  the  British 
Government  and  the  cruelties  of  the  savages  were 
themes  of  conversation  in  all  circles,  producing  an 
excitement  among  the  people  which  tended  greatly 
to  destroy  all  religious  influences,  and  create  a  sad 
state  of  morals  throughout  the  country." 

On  the  7th  of  the  previous  November,  the  mem- 
orable battle  of  Tippecanoe  had  been  fought,  in  which 
the  gallant  and  eloquent  Colonel  Jo.  Hamilton  Da- 
viess,  and  other  distinguished  Kentuckians,  had  fallen. 
News,  too,  had  reached  Kentucky  that  Fort  Harri- 
son, on  the  Wabash  River,  had  been  attacked  by  an 
overwhelming  force  of  Indians,  and  the  massacres  of 
white  families  by  the  Indians,  previous  to  the  treaty 
made  by  General  Wayne,  were  too  fresh  in  the  mem- 
ory of  the  people  of  Kentucky  for  them  to  be  idle 
spectators  at  a  time  like  this.  "  The  popular  passion 
for  war  blazed  with  such  fury  that  scarcely  any  oppo- 


248  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

sition  was  perceptible."  The  young  men  in  every 
portion  of  the  State  were  offering  themselves  for  the 
campaign.  Born  at  a  period  when  families  lived  in 
block-houses,  and  familiar,  not  only  with  the  stories, 
but  a  participant  in  the  sufferings  incident  to  frontier 
life,  young  Stamper  joined  the  expedition.  They  ren- 
dezvoused at  Lexington,  and  took  up  their  line  of 
march  from  that  city  on  the  1st  of  September,  1812. 
Occupying  the  position  of  a  chaplain,  he  acquitted 
himself  while  in  the  army  as  became  a  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ,  preaching  whenever  an  opportunity  af- 
forded, and  leaving  "  upon  hundreds  of  minds  an 
impression  in  favor  of  religion." 

The  conference  of  1812  was  held  during  his  ab- 
sence, and  he  was  appointed  to  the  Big  Sandy  Cir- 
cuit. On  the  1st  of  December  he  started  for  his  field 
of  labor.  In  summing  up  the  results  of  this  year's 
work,  he  says :  "  My  labors  on  this  circuit  were  hard 
and  attended  with  various  success.  There  were  often 
times  of  great  excitement,  and  what  would  usually  be 
called  revivals  of  religion;  but  so  volatile  and  un- 
stable were  the  subjects  of  these  excitements,  that  no 
lasting  effects  were  produced.  Often,  in  the  short 
space  of  three  weeks,  many  that  professed  religion, 
and  shouted  as  if  they  were  in  the  suburbs  of  heaven, 
went  back  into  their  former  profligacy.  I  was  led  to 
fear  that  no  permanent  good  could  be  effected  among 
these  people ;  but  time  has  proved  the  contrary. 
Through  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  persevering 
efforts  of  the  early  preachers,  the  Church  is  now 
prospering  in  most  parts  of  that  mountain  region. 
The  Gospel  took  effect  upon  the  rising  generation, 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  249 

many  of  whom  have  become  substantial  members  of 
the  Church."  * 

In  1813  he  was  appointed  to  the  Licking,  and  in 
1814  to  the  Limestone,  Circuit,  on  both  of  which 
God  blessed  his  ministry.'  At  the  conference  of  1815 
he  located.  He  re-entered  the  conference  in  1817, 
having  traveled  the  previous  year  on  the  Lexington 
Circuit,  under  the  presiding  elder.  Revivals  of  re- 
ligion distinguished  his  labors  all  around  the  circuit. 
"  At  a  camp-meeting  at  White's  Meeting-house,  in 
Harrison  County,"  there  was  a  great  revival.  "  The 
town  of  Cynthiana  had  long  withstood  the  Gospel. 
Although  repeated  efforts  had  been  made  by  all  de- 
nominations of  Christians,  no  one  of  them  had  ever 
been  able  to  gain  a  foothold  in  the  place,  which  at 
this  time  was  given  up  to  pleasure  and  dissipation. 
The  people  felt  themselves  secure  in  their  sins,  and, 
like  Gallic  of  old,  '  cared  for  none  of  these  things/ 

"  On  the  Saturday  night  of  the  camp-meeting, 
there  was  an  immense  concourse  of  people  present, 
and  the  altar  became  so  crowded  that  the  mourners 
were  like  to  be  trampled  upon.  Brother  Thomas 
Hinde  was  there,  and  assisted  very  much  in  carrying 
on  the  meeting.  He  said  to  me :  '  If  you  will  go  up 
on  the  green  above  the  seats,  fix  benches  for  the 
mourners,  and  form  a  ring  of  old  members  to  guard 
them  from  the  crowd,  I  will  take  them  up  from  the 
stand.5  The  arrangement  was  made,  and,  when  I  gave 
him  the  signal,  he  came  with  the  mourners,  some  fifty 
in  number.  As  they  entered  the  ring  the  power  of 
God  fell  upon  the  assembly  in  a  most  extraordinary 

*  Jonathan  Stamper,  in  Home  Circle,  Vol.  I,  p.  502. 


250  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

manner.  Just  at  this  moment,  a  band  of  thirty  young 
men,  who  had  come  from  town  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  breaking  up  the  meeting,  made  their  appear- 
ance. They  marched  in  rank  and  file,  their  captain 
1}eing  armed  with  a  bottle  of  whisky.  As  they  ad- 
vanced to  the  mourners'  circle,  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  met  them,  and  they  fell  like  men  in  battle; 
some  in  their  tracks,  others  after  running  a  little  dis- 
tance; but  not  one  escaped.  In  twenty  minutes  the 
work  had  become  so  general  over  the  encampment 
that  it  was  impossible  to  tell  where  the  most  good 
was  being  done. 

"  I  have  never  before  or  since  witnessed  so  great 
a  display  of  divine  power.  It  saemed  as  if  there  was 
almost  a  visible  manifestation  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
the  most  reckless  sinners  turned  pale  and  trembled 
while  they  felt  its  awful  presence.  The  work  contin- 
ued all  night  without  abatement.  Scores  were  con- 
verted ;  and  not  less  than  two  hundred  persons  were 
seen  crying  for  mercy.  The  camp  broke  up  on  Tues- 
day; but  the  people  carried  the  sacred  fire  which  had 
been  kindled  there  into  their  respective  neighbor- 
hoods. A  meeting  was  commenced  immediately  in 
Cynthiana,  under  the  direction  of  Father  Cole,  which 
continued  until  largely  over  one  hundred  were  added 
to  the  Church  in  that  hitherto  wicked  place. 

"This  revival  pervaded  the  neighborhoods  of 
Mount  Gerizim,  Ruddle's  Mills,  Pleasant  Green, 
Millersburg,  Whitaker's  Settlement,  and  many  other 
places.  In  the  space  of  six  weeks  not  less  than 
twelve  hundred  persons  professed  religion.  The  work 
was  deep  and  genuine,  comparatively  few  falling  back. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH,  251 

Hundreds  who  are  now  in  heaven  were  converted  at 
that  time,  and  a  dozen  ministers  were  brought  out 
among  the  fruits  of  this  mighty  visitation."* 

We  next  find  Mr.  Stamper  on  the  Hinkstone  Cir- 
cuit, and  then  on  the  Brush  Creek,  in  the  State  of 
Ohio,  in  both  of  which  revivals  crowned  his  labors. 

In  1819  he  was  appointed  presiding  elder  over 
the  Muskiugum  District,  which  "  extended  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Little  Scioto  to  within  a  few  miles  of 
Wheeling,  embracing  both  sides  of  the  Ohio  River." 
We  also  find  him  a  prominent  member  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1820.  He  had  attained  to  eminence  in 
the  Church,  and  henceforward  he  will  appear  as  a 
leader  in  the  ranks. 

In  1820  he  is  placed  in  charge  of  the  Salt  River 
District,  extending  from  the  Cumberland  Mountains 
to  the  city  of  Louisville.  Here  he  remained  for  two 
years.  Leaving  his  wife  and  children  at  his  father- 
in-law's,  he  entered  upon  his  work  at  once.  The 
following  Spring  he  removed  his  family  to  Shelby- 
ville,  Richard  Corwine  being  in  charge  of  the  circuit. 
In  referring  to  Shelby  ville,  he  says  : 

"  After  becoming  acquainted  with  the  state  of 
things  in  this  vicinity,  I  determined  to  preach  a 
series  of  sermons  on  the  points  of  difference  between 
Methodists  and  Calvinists.  The  cause  of  my  deter- 
mination was  simply  this:  the  Methodists  had  been 
completely  down-trodden  by  Calvinistic  preachers, 
who  made  a  point  of  assailing  our  doctrines  and 
usages  in  almost  every  sermon.  Our  people  had  be- 
come disheartened,  and  were  rather  disposed  to  bow 

*  Jonathan  Stamper,  in  Home  Circle,  Vol.  II,  p.  168. 


252  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

down  and  submit  to  this  petty  tyranny  without  re- 
sistance or  defense.  Such  a  state  of  things  did  not 
at  all  comport  with  my  ideas  of  justice  or  duty.  One 
Presbyterian  and  two  Baptist  preachers,  all  famed  for 
talent,  had  occupied  the  ground.  These  three  men 
seemed  to  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
Methodists  would  tamely  submit  to  be  mauled  and 
ridiculed  at  their  pleasure. 

"  I  commenced  my  series,  and  crowds  came  to 
hear.  The  above-mentioned  ministers  attended,  to 
take  notes  and  make  large  threats ;  but  I  continued 
my  course,  regardless  of  all  that  was  said.  At  the 
close  of  one  of  my  sermons,  the  following  notice  was 
handed  me : 

" '  Mr.  Stamper, — Please  publish  to  your  congre- 
gation that,  on  this  day  four  weeks,  Rev.  Silas  Ton- 
cray  will  preach  in  the  Baptist  church,  in  reply  to  the 
discourses  delivered  by  you  against  the  doctrines  of 
grace,  commonly  called  Calvinism.' 

"  I  announced  the  notice,  with  the  following  re- 
marks :  '  I  do  not  consider  this  the  best  or  fairest 
way  of  conducting  this  matter.  Mr.  Toncray  and 
Mr.  Waller  have  heard  my  arguments.  Those  argu- 
ments are  now  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and 
if  a  reply  is  intended  this  is  the  time  for  it.  Mr. 
Toncray  is  welcome  to  the  use  of  my  pulpit,  and  I 
am  the  more  anxious  to  hear  him  this  evening,  be- 
cause it  will  be  out  of  my  power  to  attend  at  the  time 
specified  in  the  notice.  I  claim  it  as  a  right  that  I 
shall  be  present  to  defend  myself/ 

"'We  feel  disposed,'  said  Mr.  Waller,  'to  make 
our  own  arrangements  in  our  own  way.' 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  253 

" '  I  hope,  then/  replied  I,  '  that  you  will  have 
candor  enough  to  make  the  appointment  at  a  time 
when  I  can  be  there.' 

" l  That/  said  he,  '  is  your  own  lookout.  We  shall 
not  hinder  you  from  being  present.' 

"'Still/  I  insisted,  'as  you  say  you  will  not  hin- 
der me,  I  hope  you  will  so  arrange  the  time  that  I 
can  be  with  you.' 

"  The  answer  was :  '  We  feel  disposed  to  follow  our 
own  course  in  this  matter;  and  it  is  our  opinion  that 
no  one  has  a  right  to  dictate  either  when  or  where 
the  reply  shall  be  made.' 

"  I  rejoined  that  I  did  not  dispute  their  right  or 
power  to  do  so,  but  hoped  that  the  congregation  would 
claim  the  right  to  look  upon  them  as  cowards,  seek- 
ing to  skulk  from  a  fair  investigation  of  the  points 
under  discussion. 

"  To  this  Mr.  Toncray  very  quickly  replied  that 
he  was  not  afraid  to  meet  me  anywhere  upon  those 
points. 

"'Then/  said  I,  'act  like  a  man,  and  give  me  a 
chance  to  defend  myself.' 

"  This  brought  them  to  a  stand ;  and  seeing  that 
if  they  did  not  agree  to  meet  me  fairly  their  cause 
would  suffer,  they,  after  counseling  together  a  moment, 
begged  to  be  excused  on  that  evening,  adding  that 
they  would  be  ready  at  any  other  time. 

"'Will  to-morrow  at  ten  o'clock  do?'  I  asked. 

"  The  answer  was  affirmative,  and  I  then  announced 
to  the  people  that  Mr.  Toncray  would  reply  to  my  dis- 
courses in  that  house  at  the  hour  agreed  upon. 

"The  appointment  flew  as  if  on  the  wings  of  the 


254  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

wind.  As  early  as  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  the 
people  were  seen  coming  in  every  direction,  anxious 
to  witness  the  contest.  Toncray  and  Waller  were  a 
little  late;  but  when  they  came  I  met  and  conducted 
them  to  the  pulpit  with  all  the  politeness  at  my  com- 
mand. When  we  were  seated,  Mr.  Toncray  turned 
to  me,  and  asked : 

"'What  course  are  you  going  to  pursue?' 

" '  I  think  that  is  clear  from  what  passed  yester- 
day. I  understand  that  you  are  to  answer  my  dis- 
courses, confuting  my  arguments  if  you  can,  and  that 
I  have  the  liberty  of  replying  when  you  are  done.' 

" '  I  do  not  understand  it  so.  My  understanding 
is  that  the  matter  will  end  with  my  remarks.  I  object 
to  your  replying,  and  you  shall  not  do  it.' 

"  '  But  I  will.' 

"<  You-  shall  not/ 

"  <  I  will.' 

"'You  shall  not;  and  if  you  persist  I  will  not  say 
one  word.' 

" '  You  can  do  as  you  please.  If  you  will  not 
preach,  I  will.  This  congregation  shall  not  be  dis- 
appointed; and,  just  as  certainly  as  you  occupy  the 
pulpit,  I  claim  the  right  of  replying.' 

"Brother  Corwine,  who  was  sitting  in  the  stand 
with  us,  turned  to  me  and  said : 

" '  Stick  to  it,  Brother  Stamper ;  it  is  your  right, 
and  you  must  not  relinquish  it  under  any  circum- 
stances.' 

"After  a  few  moments'  pause,  Mr.  Waller  said  to 
his  discomfited  friend : 

"  '  Do  n't  back  out ;  you  can  prevent  his  replying.' 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  255 

"'How?' 

" '  Do  you  take  the  stand,  and  occupy  it  all  day ; 
you  can  keep  him  out  in  that  way,  if  in  no  other.' 

"  Toncray  took  his  advice,  refrained  from  begin- 
ning as  long  as  he  could,  and  then  talked  five  hours 
and  a  half! 

"  I  felt  insulted  by  this  attempting  to  take  advan- 
tage of  me,  and,  when  he  got  through,  arose  and  told 
the  congregation  the  whole  affair  from  beginning  to 
end.  There  was  not  time  for  me  to  say  much;  but  I 
noticed  a  few  of  the  gentleman's  arguments  then,  and 
pledged  myself  for  a  full  answer  subsequently.  I  as- 
sured Mr.  Toncray  that  he  should  be  duly  notified  of 
time  and  place,  and  furthermore  promised  that  I 
would  not  treat  him  as  he  had  treated  me  on  this 
occasion. 

"  One  of  his  strong  points,  which  I  noticed,  was 
the  case  of  Judas  Iscariot.  Toncray  affirmed  that 
this  man  was  a  devil  from  the  beginning,  being  ap- 
pointed by  our  Lord  in  view  of  the  part  he  should 
act.  In  connection  with  this,  he  remarked  that  the 
eternal  purposes  of  God  in  the  redemption  of  the 
world  could  never  have  been  accomplished  without  a 
traitor;  that  Judas  was  predestinated  to  that  part, 
and  did  what  God  had  determined  he  should  do.  In 
answer  to  this,  I  said : 

" '  If  Judas  fulfilled  the  commission  assigned  him 
by  the  Almighty,  he  was  a  good  and  faithful  servant, 
and  was  certainly  approved  of  his  Master  for  his  obe- 
dience. It  would  be  a  reflection  upon  the  divine  in- 
tegrity to  suppose  that  he  would  be  assigned  a  special 
work,  and  then  sent  to  hell  for  doing  it.  Further- 


256  LIFE  AtfD   TIMES   OF 

more,  if  one  traitor  was  necessary  in  making  up  the 
twelve  apostles  in  the  commencement  of  the  Gospel 
ministry,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  conclude  that  God 
yet  has  need  of  traitors  in  the  same  ratio;  if  they 
were  necessary  in  carrying  out  the  Gospel  ministry 
in  the  apostolic  age,  they  are  equally  so  in  carrying 
out  that  ministry  in  all  ages.  If  the  clergy  has  to 
lie  under  this  censure,  I  do  not  see  why  this  commu- 
nity has  not  a  right  to  say  that  Mr.  Toncray  is  a 
Judas,  as  well  as  to  say  it  of  any  other  minister.  If 
they  should  charge  him  with  this,  he  would  have  no 
right  to  complain,  but  should  content  himself  to  be 
hanged,  and  go  to  his  own  place,  seeing  that  he  had 
accomplished  the  end  for  which  he  was  born.  Judas 
and  Mr.  Toncray  would  have  one  thing  in  common 
to  console  them  in  hell,  if  the  doctrine  you  have 
heard  to-day  be  true;  and  that  is,  that  they  were 
both  damned,  not  for  doing  their  own  will,  but  for 
doing  the  will  of  God !' 

"  It  was  between  five  and  six  o'clock  when  the 
services  closed,  after  my  announcement  that  on  the 
next  Sunday  week  I  would  reply  more  fully  to  Mr. 
Toncray. 

"  The  ball  was  now  fairly  in  motion.  The  people 
were  waked  up,  and  began  to  think  and  read  for 
themselves.  Methodism  from  this  hour  held  up  its 
head  in  that  region,  its  advocates  being  greatly  in- 
creased and  emboldened.  Our  Calvinistic  friends  felt 
somewhat  disconcerted,  and  complained  that  we  should 
have  the  impudence  to  attack  the  doctrines  of  the 
Reformation,  as  taught  by  Calvin,  Beza,  and  others; 
but  we  held  on  our  course  steadily,  saying  but 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGIL  257 

little,  and  hoping  and  praying  for  the  triumph  of 
truth. 

"  Mr.  Cameron,  the  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  was  a  Scotchman  by  birth  and  education — 
a  generous-hearted  man,  but  uncommonly  impulsive 
in  his  temper,  over  which  neither  he  nor  his  friends 
had  any  control.  Being  a  strong  Calvinist,  of  the  old 
school,  he  felt  a  concern  for  the  safety  of  his  favorite 
scheme,  and  thought  it  incumbent  on  him  to  come  to 
the  help  of  his  Baptist  brethren.  When  the  day  came 
for  my  reply,  Mr.  Cameron  dismissed  the  congrega- 
tion at  what  was  called  the  Mud  Meeting-house,  a 
few  miles  in  the  country,  came  to  town  under  whip 
and  spur,  and  reached  the  church  just  as  I  arose  to 
commence.  He  pressed  through  the  crowd,  took  a 
seat,  and  prepared  to  take  notes. 

"  I  took  up  the  subject  that  day  in  regular  order, 
from  the  doctrine  of  decrees  down  to  the  final  and 
unconditional  perseverance  of  the  saints,  and  occupied 
about  three  hours  in  its  investigation,  during  which 
a  death-like  silence  reigned  throughout  the  assembly. 
After  getting  through  the  arguments  against  Calvin- 
ism, I  proceeded  to  lay  down  the  plain  articles  of 
Calvinism  and  Methodism  in  their  undress,  side  by 
side,  telling  the  congregation  that  they  might  inspect 
them  at  their  leisure,  and  make  what  comparisons  and 
deductions  they  chose. 

"  I  read  the  first  two  articles  agreed  to  by  the 
Synod  of  Dort.  My  old  friend  Cameron  could  con- 
tain himself  no  longer,  and,  rising  to  his  feet,  shouted 
out,  in  his  broad  Scotch  dialect : 

"'Stop,  Mr.  Stumper!  Stop,  Mr.  Stumper!  I  do 
22 


258  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

not  want  this  large  congregation  to  go  away  and 
believe  we  hold  such  damnable  doctrines.  Mr. 
Stomper  has  dressed  Calvinism  in  rags,  and  set  the 
dogs  after  it!' 

"At  this  Philip  Taylor,  who  was  a  magistrate  as 
well  as  a  local  preacher,  arose  and  commanded  order, 
telling  Mr.  Cameron  that  he  was  disturbing  the  peace 
of  the  congregation.  I  '  urged  Mr.  Taylor  to  sit 
down,  and,  turning  to  Mr.  Cameron,  assured  him  that 
he  should  have  full  liberty  to  say  what  he  chose, 
without  fear  of  being  considered  a  disturber.  This 
softened  him  into  kindly  thanking  me  for  the  courtesy 
shown,  and  I  immediately  asked  him  whether  I  had 
read  the  articles  aright. 

" '  Yes/  he  answered ;  '  but  they  need  explanation, 
and  that  you  have  not  given.' 

" '  I  think  an  article  of  religion  which  has  been 
signed  by  a  grave  synod  ought  to  be  so  definite  as 
to  render  explanation -unnecessary/ 

" '  Well,  Mr.  Stomper,  after  all  you  have  said,  we 
do  not  differ  so  widely.  You  tell  us  what  we  must  be- 
lieve in  order  to  justification,  and  I  tell  you  that  he  that 
believeth  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  shall  be  saved.' 

" '  Yes,  Mr.  Cameron,  but  your  doctrines  carry 
some  horrible  consequences  after  them,  from  which 
ours  are  happily  freed.' 

"'None  that  I  can  conceive,'  was  his  reply. 

"'Will  you  permit  me,'  I  said,  'to  ask  you  two 
or  three  plain  questions?' 

"  '  Yes,  sir ;  and  I  will  answer  them.  If  I  had  a 
glass  of  water,  and  my  Bible,  I  wowld  show  beyond 
contradiction  that  Mr.  Stomper  is  wrong.' 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  259 

"Some  one  handed  him  a  glass  of  water;  and  after 
he  had  drunk,  I  asked  the  following  question  : 

" '  Do  you  believe  that  God  has  made  it  possible 
for  all  men  to  be  saved?' 

"  '  Certainly  I  do.' 

" '  Do  you  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  purchased  re- 
demption for  all  men?' 

" ' No ;  I  do  not  believe  any  such  thing.' 

" t  Will  you  please  to  tell  me,  and  this  congrega- 
tion, how  those  may  be  saved  for  whom  Christ  did 
not  die,  and  for  whom  he  procured  no  redemption?' 

"  The  old  gentleman,  at  once  seeing  the  dilemma 
into  which  he  had  fallen,  flew  into  a  perfect  rage,  and 
declared  that  he  was  not  bound  to  answer  any  such 
question.  His  Presbyterian  brethren  ran  to  him  and 
begged  him  for  God's  sake  to  be  silent,  or  he  would 
injure  the  cause,  and  ruin  himself.  But  he  cried  out 
at  the  top  of  his  voice,  *  Let  me  alone !  I  will  say 
what  I  please!'  and  so  he  made  his  way  to  the  door, 
followed  by  his  beseeching  brethren,  while  the  con- 
gregation was  in  a  paroxysm  of  laughter  at  his  vio- 
lence. Hundreds  followed  him  from  the  church  to 
the  public  square,  where  he  lectured  half  an  hour  be- 
fore his  friends  could  quiet  him. 

"  I  finished  the  reading  of  the  articles,  and  called 
on  Messrs.  Toncray  and  Waller  for  a  reply,  but  they 
declined  making  any. 

"  Mr.  Cameron  published  that  he  would  answer 
my  sermon  on  the  ensuing  Sabbath  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church.  I  wrote  him  a  note,  requesting  the 
privilege  of  being  there  to  defend  the  doctrines  of 
Methodism;  but  he  said  to  the  messenger,  'Tell  Mr. 


260  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Stomper  I  consider  him  a  gentleman — he  treated  me 
as  one ;  but  tell  him  I  have  such  a  devilish  temper  I 
can 't  bear  it,  and  he  must  excuse  me  for  not  granting 
his  request/ 

"  It  was  circulated  about  that  I  had  been  denied 
the  privilege  of  hearing  him,  and  the  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  Presbyterian  Church  determined  to  stay 
away,  so  that  he  had  only  about  twenty  persons  in 
the  house.  Thus  the  controversy  ended  between  Mr. 
Cameron  and  myself.  We  were  upon  the  most  friendly 
terms  to  the  day  of  his  death,  and  I  always  respected 
him  for  his  honesty  and  simplicity  of  character.  His 
impulsiveness  almost  amounted  to  a  disease,  but  he 
was  perfectly  ingenuous  and  without  malice;  so  that 
if  he  flew  into  a  pet  with  me  it  was  soon  over,  and  he 
was  kind  as  ever; 

" '  One  that  bore  anger  as  a  flint  bears  fire : 
When  much  inflamed,  it  shows  a  hasty  spark, 
And  straight  is  cold  again.' 

"Perhaps  one  cause  of  his  great  irascibility  was 
his  being  a  bachelor.  A  want  of  the  softening  and 
winning  influences  of  a  wife  often  causes  men  to  be- 
come soured  with  the  world,  and  fancy  themselves  un- 
dervalued and  neglected.  The  old  gentleman  long 
since  bade  adieu  to  earth,  and  I  hope  is  resting  in 
Abraham's  bosom."  * 

In  1822  he  traveled  the  Augusta  District;  in  1823 
is  appointed  agent  for  Augusta  College,  and  in  1824 
is  again  appointed  to  the  Augusta  District,  on  which 
he  remains  for  four  years.  Following  him  in  his  la- 
bors, we  find  him  in  charge  of  the  Cumberland  and 

*  Jonathan  Stamper,  in  Home,  Circle,  vol.  ii,  pp.  523-526. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  261 

the  Kentucky  Districts;  then  filling  the  Shelby  ville, 
Louisville,  Danville,  and  Harrodsburg  Stations ;  then 
in  charge  of  the  Augusta,  Greensburg,  and  Shelby  ville 
Districts. 

At  the  session  of  the  conference  of  1841  he  was 
transferred  to  the  Illinois  Conference,  and  was  sta- 
tioned at  Springfield,  where  he  remained  for  two  years; 
the  following  two  years  he  is  the  pastor  of  the  Church 
in  Quincy. 

As  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844, 
in  the  controversy  that  led  to  the  division  of  the 
Church,  he  took  his  position  with  the  Southern  dele- 
gates. This  rendering  him  unacceptable  to  the  Illi- 
nois Conference,  he  asked  to  be  retransferred  to  Ken- 
tucky, where  he  met  with  a  most  cordial  reception. 

After  his  return  to  Kentucky,  his  first  appoint- 
ment was  to  the  agency  of  Transylvania  University. 
He  next  served  the  Maysville  District  for  two  years 
as  presiding  elder.  In  1848  he  was  transferred  to  the 
St.  Louis  Conference,  and  stationed  in  Jefferson  City; 
but  his  health  failing  him,  he  was  placed  on  the  su- 
perannuated list  at  the  following  conference.  In  that 
relation,  in  1850,  he  was  again  transferred  to  the  Ken- 
tucky Conference,  and  continued  on  the  superannuated 
roll  until  the  Autumn  of  1858. 

Since  1850,  although  a  superannuated  member  of 
the  Kentucky  Conference,  he  had  resided  at  Decatur, 
Illinois,  where  he  owned  property.  Through  the  ear- 
nest solicitation  of  prominent  members  of  the  Illinois 
Conference,  in  1858  he  became  a  member  of  that  con- 
ference, and  was  stationed  in  Decatur.  At  the  close 
of  the  year  his  health  was  too  feeble  for  him  to  con- 


262  LIFE   AND    TIMES   OF 

tinue  on  the  effective  roll,  and  hence  he  was  again 
placed  on  the  superannuated  list.  Reluctant  to  yield 
to  the  encroachments  of  age,  and  anxious  to  die  in  the 
effective  ranks,  he  again  accepted  an  appointment,  and 
for  two  years  traveled  on  the  Mechanicsburg  Circuit. 
At  the  conference  of  1862  he  was  again  placed  on  the 
list  of  superannuated  preachers,  on  which  he  contin- 
ued until  the  final  summons  called  him  from  labor  to 
reward. 

Among  the  last  expressions  that  fell  from  his  dy- 
ing lips  were,  "  My  hope  is  in  Jesus ;  he  is  precious 
to  my  soul ;  I  love  him ;  I  will  praise  him.  I  have 
been  an  unfaithful  servant,  and  I  am  needy  and  un- 
worthy; but  there  is  a  fullness  in  Jesus  that  diffuses 
and  spreads  itself  abroad,  covering  the  entire  field  of 
my  wants,  and  in  that  fullness  I  rejoice.  Glory  to 
God !  my  work  is  done.  I  am  almost  home."  He 
died  in  Decatur,  Illinois,  on  the  26th  day  of  Febru- 
ary, 1864. 

It  has  been  with  pleasure  that  we  have  followed 
this  eminent  man  of  God  through  the  long  period  of 
his  ministry.  For  fifty-four  years — forty  of  which 
were  spent  in  Kentucky — he  stood  in  the  front  ranks 
of  the  Church  as  a  faithful,  useful,  and  gifted  minis- 
ter of  Jesus  Christ.  Jonathan  Stamper  was  a  great 
man  in  all  that  constitutes  true  greatness.  "  He  was 
one  of  the  finest  pulpit  orators  of  his  day.  God  made 
him  an  orator.  On  camp-meeting  occasions,  congre- 
gated thousands  have  hung  with  rapt  delight  upon  his 
ever-varying  strains,  amazed  at  the  richness,  beauty, 
strength,  attractiveness,  and  glory  of  divine  truth,  or 
swayed  by  his  mighty  reasonings,  or  convulsed  with 


BISHOP   KA  VAN  A  UGH.  263 

fear  and  dread,  or  melted  into  tenderness  and  tears; 
or  lifted  to  their  feet,  or  hurled  prostrate  to  the 
ground,  when  he  discoursed  to  them  of  the  judgment 
of  the  last  day,  of  the  glorious  appearing  of  the  great 
God  our  Savior  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  lost  soul,  or  of 
the  triumphant  entrance  of  the  soldier  of  the  Cross 
into  his  rest."  * 

In  Kentucky  no  man  was  better  known  than  Jon- 
athan Stamper.  He  traveled  and  preached  all  over 
the  State.  We  heard  him  often.  From  our  early 
childhood  until  he  took  his  final  leave  of  Kentucky, 
we  many  times  sat  beneath  his  ministry.  We  can  not 
forget  him.  We  remember  him  once  at  a  camp-meet- 
ing near  Shelbyville.  Day  after  day  had  faithful  men 
dispensed  the  Word  of  Life,  and  many  had  found  the 
"  peace  that  passeth  understanding."  The  excitement 
had  subsided,  and  quiet  rested  on  the  encampment. 
Jonathan  Stamper,  then  in  the  full  strength  of  man- 
hood, ascended  the  stand.  It  was  the  quiet  hour  of 
evening.  All  nature  was  calm  ;  scarcely  a  leaf  of  the 
forest  was  rustled  by  the  passing  breeze.  He  opened 
the  service  with  singing  and  prayer,  and  then  an- 
nounced his  favorite  theme — the  final  judgment. 

He  entered  with  calmness  upon  the  investigation 
of  the  subject,  gradually  leading  his  hearers  from 
point  to  point,  until  he  held  over  them  a  complete 
mastery.  Showing  the  necessity  of  a  general  judg- 
ment, that  men  may  be  rewarded  or  punished  for  all 
their  works,  he  summoned  those  who  had  lived  and 
passed  away,  of  every  generation  and  every  clime, 
from  earth  and  .sea,  and  those  living  now,  including 

*  <  Jt-neral  Minutes  for  1864,  p.  191. 


264  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

the  vast  assembly  to  whom  he  was  preaching,  to  ap- 
pear before  the  Judge,  to  hear  the  final  sentence.  In 
every  direction,  as  far  as  human  eye  could  reach,  vast 
crowds  seemed  pressing  to  the  place  of  judgment. 
Not  only  the  living  of  every  land,  but  from  the  gold- 
paved  streets  of  the  city  of  God,  and  passing  out 
through  its  jeweled  gates,  myriads  "  whose  robes  had 
been  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb,"  coming  to  receive  unfading  crowns;  while 
from  the  realms  of  black  despair,  with  flames  of  fire 
dripping  from  their  burning  fingers,  unnumbered 
thousands  approached  the  judgment-seat  to  hear  their 
final  doom.  A  hush,  like  the  stillness  of  death,  per- 
meated the  congregation,  as  crowns  were  distributed, 
or  the  ungodly  chased  away  to  the  "  blackness  of 
darkness  forever."  Then  heightening  his  rich  and 
mellow  voice,  and  throwing  his  whole  soul  into  the 
appeal,  he  pleaded  with  those  who  heard  him — who, 
though  on  the  precincts  of  hell,  were  yet  outside — to 
turn  and  live.  Commotion  was  seen  in  every  direc- 
tion. More  than  one  hundred  persons  pressed  to  the 
altar  and  pleaded  for  mercy. 

"Among  the  people  where  he  spent  the  evening 
of  his  life  he  was  cherished  as  a  patriarch  and  was 
happy  in  his  family  and  Christian  relations.  His 
funeral  was  one  of  the  largest  that  ever  occurred  in 
the  city  of  Decatur.  A  neat  marble  monument,  with 
an  open  Bible,  marks  his  last  resting-place." 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  alluded  to  Augusta 
College. 

For  many  years  it  was  a  brilliant  success.  Its 
halls  were  crowded  with  young  men  destined  to  occupy 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  265 

a  commanding  eminence  in  the  higher  circles  of  life. 
Some  of  the  first  intellects  of  the  age  presided  over  its 
fortunes,  and  many  of  the  brightest  lights  in  the  med- 
ical profession,  at  the  bar,  and  in  the  pulprt  claimed 
Augusta  College  as  their  alma  mater.  Circumstances, 
however,  for  which  the  Kentucky  Conference  was  not 
responsible,  and  over  which  it  had  no  control,  broke 
the  power  of  this  once  popular  institution.  The  agi- 
tation of  the  questions  of  slavery  and  abolition  exerted 
an  influence  for  harm  upon  its  fortunes  that  no  fac- 
ulty, however  learned,  could  counteract.  The  Ohio 
Conference  practically  withdrew  its  patronage  because 
of  its  location  in  a  slave-holding  State,  while  the 
South,  from  whence  a  large  proportion  of  its  support 
had  been  received,  declined  to  send  her  sons  so  near 
the  border  or  to  have  them  educated  in  the  same 
school  with  young  men  who  held  views,  and  so  openly 
advocated  them,  adverse  to  ail  institution  that  was 
peculiarly  Southern. 

It  was  announced  on  the  floor  of  the  conference, 
on  the  afternoon  of  Wednesday,  the  22d,  by  Dr.  Bas- 
com,  that  propositions  had  been  received  by  him  from 
a  certain  corporation,  which  he  desired  should  be 
referred  to  a  special  committee  of  three.  The  com- 
mittee, as  appointed  by  the  president,  was  composed 
of  Henry  B.  Bascom,  Benjamin  T.  Crouch,  and 
Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh.  Joseph  S.  Tomlinson  and 
Thomas  N.  Ralston  were  subsequently  added  to  the 
committee. 

On  Thursday,  the  23d,  the  following  report  was 
submitted  and  unanimously  adopted  by  a  rising  vote: 

"The  trustees  of  Transylvania  University  having 
23 


266  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

tendered  the  control  and  management  of  said  uni- 
versity to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  by  the 
adoption  of  the  following  resolutions,  bearing  date 
September  21,  1841 : 

"  'Resolved,  That  a  tender  of  the  control  of  Tran- 
sylvania University,  so  far  as  the  nomination  of  the 
faculty  in  the  college  proper,  the  principal  in  the  pre- 
paratory department,  together  with  the  direction  of 
the  course  of  studies  and  internal  government  of  said 
college  is  concerned,  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby,  made 
to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States,  and  especially  to  said  Church  in  Kentucky, 
upon  such  terms  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  between  said 
Church  and  this  board. 

"'Resolved,  That  S.  Chipley  be  a  committee  to 
confer  with  the  Kentucky  Conference  on  the  subject 
of  the  above  institution. 

"  (Signed.)  '  M.  C.  JOHNSON, 

"'Chairman  Board  T.  T.  U. 

"'Attest:  D.  S.  VIGERS,  Secretary  Board  T.  T.  U.' 

"The  special  committee,  to  whom  was  referred  the 
foregoing  resolutions  to  consider  and  report  upon, 
recommend  the  following  resolutions  by  the  Kentucky 
Conference  in  conference  assembled: 

"Resolved,  by  the  Kentucky  Annual  Conference,  That, 
in  behalf  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  we  will 
accept  the  proposition  of  the  trustees  of  Transylvania 
University  on  the  following  conditions: 

"First.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  Transylvania 
University  and  the  Church  will  unite  to  obtain  any 
enactment  of  the  Legislature  that  may  be  necessary  in 
carrying  out  the  design  of  the  parties  in  the  re-organ- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  267 

ization  of  said  institution  as  well  as  to  give  to  the 
Church,  through  her  constituted  authorities,  the  right 
of  electing  three  additional  trustee's  possessing  the 
same  powers  possessed  by  other  trustees  of  Transyl- 
vania University. 

"Second.  The  entire  faculty,  as  also  the  teachers 
in  the  preparatory  department,  in  the  re-organization 
of  the  university,  as  contemplated  in  the  premises, 
shall  be  nominated  by  the  Church,  through  her  con- 
stituted authorities  and  confirmed  by  the  trustees;  and 
thereafter,  when  any  of  the  chairs  become  vacated  by 
death  or  otherwise,  the  remaining  members  of  the 
faculty  shall  nominate,  and  the  trustees  confirm,  in 
order  to  fill  such  vacancy. 

"Third.  The  control  of  the  collegiate  and  prepar- 
atory departments,  the  internal  regulation  of  the 
college,  the  direction  of  the  course  of  studies,  the 
management  of  the  dormitory  and  boarding-house,  the 
superintendence  and  care  of  the  buildings  and  grounds 
belonging  to  the  university,  shall  be  given  to  the  faculty. 

"Fourth.  The  income  arising  from  all  the  perma- 
nent funds  now  belonging  to  the  university,  and  the 
income  arising  from  all  the  college  funds  now  belong- 
ing to,  or  which  may  hereafter  be  raised  by,  said 
Church  in  Kentucky,  as  also  the  tuition  fees,  shall  be 
appropriated  for  the  support  of  the  faculty  and  teach- 
ers in  the  preparatory  department,  and  for  such  inci- 
dental expenses  as  may  be  necessary  to  sustain  such 
institution  when  recommended  by  the  faculty;  but 
the  capital,  etc.,  shall  remain  the  separate  property  of 
the  respective  parties,  each  party  controlling  its  sep- 
arate interests. 


268  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

"Fifth.  It  is  expressly  understood  that  the  Church 
is  not  required  to  meet  any  of  the  present  liabilities 
of  said  university. 

"Sixth.  The  Kentucky  Annual  Conference  shall, 
at  each  session,  appoint  a  committee  whose  duty  it 
shall  be  to  visit  said  institution  and  report  to  the 
ensuing  conference  its  condition  and  prosperity,  which 
report  shall  be  disposed  of  by  the  conference  in  suph 
manner  as  they  may  think  will  best  promote  the  in- 
terests of  said  institution  by  publication  or  otherwise. 

"Seventh.  The  trustees  shall  at  all  times  fix  the 
salaries  of  the  professors ;  provided  that  the  salaries 
shall  not  be  less  than  is  usually  paid  in  similar  insti- 
tutions, unless  at  the  instance  of  the  faculty. 

"Eighth.  The  arrangements  to  carry  out  and  com- 
plete the  contemplated  re-organization  of-  said  univer- 
sity, by  the  nomination  and  appointment  of  an  able 
faculty,  teachers,  etc.,  must  be  consummated  by  the 
end  of  the  next  collegiate  year  of  said  university, 
which  will  be  in  the  Autumn  of  1842.  In  the  mean- 
time, should  any  of  the  chairs  in  said  institution  be 
vacated,  and  should  it  be  thought  necessary  and  be 
required  by  the  trustees,  the  Church,  by  her  author- 
ities, will  endeavor  to  make  suitable  nominations  for 
pro  tern,  appointments  to  fill  such  vacancies. 

Resolved,  That  the  conference  will,  by  a  com- 
mittee to  be  raised  -  for  that  purpose,  endeavor,  as 
speedily  as  practicable,  to  get  the  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners appointed  by  the  late  General  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States 
to  take  favorable  action  upon  the  subject  and  to  report 
the  same  to  the  next  General  Conference  in  order  to 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  269 

obtain,  as  far  as  possible,  the  influence  and  patronage 
of  said  General  Conference  in  favor  of  said  university. 
(Signed.)  "H.  B.  BASCOM, 

"B.  T.  CROUCH, 
"H.  H.  KAVANAUGH, 
"T.  N.  RALSTON." 

Thomas  N.  Ralston  presented  the  following  reso- 
lution, which  was  adopted : 

"  Whereas,  We,  as  a  Church,  are  now  in  negotia- 
tion with  the  trustees  of  Transylvania  University,  in 
view  of  effecting  a  reorganization  of  the  same,  and 
having  submitted  the  terms  upon  which  we  will  ac- 
cept the  control  of  said  institution,  and  inasmuch  as 
it  may  be  necessary  for  the  consummation  of  this  de- 
sirable object  that  farther  negotiations  with  the  trus- 
tees be  had;  therefore, 

"  Resolved,  That  H.  B.  Bascom,  B.  T.  Crouch,  and 
H.  H.  Kavanaugh  be,  and  they  are  hereby,  appointed 
a  committee  to  carry  out  the  views  as  expressed  by 
this  conference,  with  power  to  do  any  other  act  that 
they  may  think  will  best  promote  the  interest  of  the 
Church." 

Before  the  proposition  made  by  the  trustees  of 
Transylvania  University,  the  location  of  the  college 
at  Augusta  was  the  subject  of  comment  in  Methodist 
circles  throughout  the  State,  and  the  opinion  was 
commonly  expressed  that  a  removal  to  some  more 
eligible  point  was  requisite,  if  the  Church  desired  to 
sustain  an  institution  of  learning  of  high  grade.  The 
proposition,  therefore,  to  turn  over  Transylvania  Uni- 
versity to  the  conference  could  not  be  deemed  other- 
wise than  opportune  for  the  Church. 


270  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

The  reappointraent  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  to  the  city 
of  Maysville  was  agreeable  no  less  to  the  preacher 
than  to  the  people.  He  always  regarded  his  second 
year  in  that  charge  as  among  the  pleasant  years  of 
his  life. 

While  pastor  of  the  Church  in  Maysville  Mr. 
Kavanaugh  edited  a  temperance  paper  in  that  city. 
The  Kentucky  Conference  had  sounded  the  note  of 
prohibition  on  that  question,  and  he  was  in  full  ac- 
cord with  that  body,  wielding  a  pen  than  which  there 
was  none  more  powerful  or  more  vigorous  in  the 
West. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  271 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 
OF  1842  TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1848. 

SINCE  the  session  of  the  Kentucky  Conference  of 
1836,  Methodism  had  advanced  in  numbers  and 
influence  each  year.  The  increase  during  these  six 
years  was,  in  the  white  membership,  fourteen  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  ninety -two,  and  in  the  colored, 
three  thousand  five  hundred  and  ninety-three — mak- 
ing a  total  increase  of  seventeen  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  eighty-five. 

It  has  been  but  seldom  that,  within  so  short  a 
period,  such  success  has  marked  the  progress  of  Meth- 
odism in  the  commonwealth. 

In  1842  Mr.  Kavaiuiugh  was  appointed  to  Brook 
Street  Station,  in  the  city  of  Louisville.  Richard 
Corwine  had  charge  of  the  district.  No  two  preach- 
ers differed  more  widely.  If  Mr.  Corwine  admired 
the  brilliant  talents  of  the  pastor  of  the  Brook  Street 
Church,  Mr.  Kavanaugh  had  no  less  regard  for  the 
blameless  life  and  modest  pretensions  of  the  presid- 
ing elder. 

In  1817  Mr.  Corwine  entered  the  conference,  and 
for  more  than  twenty-five  years,  by  his  piety  and 
labors,  evinced  his  devotion^  to  the  Church.  Two 
years  of  this  time  his  health  was  too  feeble  to  perform 
the  duties  of  an  itinerant  preacher,  and  hence  we  find 


272  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

him  one  year  on  the  superannuated  roll  and  one  year 
as  supernumerary.  His  appointments  were  the  Hink- 
stone,  Lexington,  Madison,  Goose  Creek,  and  Shelby 
Circuits;  the  Louisville,  and  Shelby ville  and  Brick 
Chapel  Stations;  Danville,  Hopkinsville,  Red  River, 
and  Lexington  Circuits;  the  Augusta  District,  Flem- 
ing and  Mt.  Sterling  Circuits,  Shelbyville  Station,  and 
Hopkinsville  and  Louisville  Districts.  It  was  dur- 
ing his  pastoral  term  in  the  Shelbyville  Station,  to 
which  he  was  appointed  in  1836,  that  we  made  his 
acquaintance,  and  on  the  7th  of  March,  1837,  we  re- 
ceived from  him  license  to  exhort.  From  this  time 
until  his  death  we  knew  him  intimately.  While  he 
did  not  take  rank  in  the  pulpit  as  one  of  the  first 
preachers  in  the  conference,  yet  his  talents  were  above 
mediocrity,  and  he  was  always  acceptable  to  the 
Church  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel.  He  never 
preached  what  the  world  styles  great  sermons,  but  he 
never  failed  to  interest  and  instruct.  His  was  not 
the  flood  of  impassioned  eloquence  that  overleaps  its 
banks  and  carries  every  thing  before  it;  but  it  was 
the  gentle  stream  that  rolled  smoothly  on  within  the 
limits  assigned  it,  equally  sure  to  reach  its  destina- 
tion, bearing  upon  its  placid  bosom  the  hopes  of  the 
world.  Loved  by  the  Church,  and  respected  by  all 
who  knew  him,  Richard  Corwine  was  a  blessing  to 
every  community  in  which  he  lived  and  labored. 

"As  a  man  and  a  Christian  he  was  in  all  things 
consistent;  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
grave,  dignified,  and  intelligent.  His  pulpit  efforts 
were  always  enriched  by  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  Christianity — the  blood  and  righteousness  of  Christ, 


BISHOP   KAVANAVGH.  273 

the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  man's  salvation,  were 
more  or  less  in  all  his  sermons :  they  were  his  theme 
to  the  last.  Among  his  dying  expressions  were,  ( I 
glory  in  the  blood  of  Christ :  this  is  the  foundation 
of  my  trust/ 

"  His  Christian  experience  was  like  a  rising  tide 
to  the  end  of  life — then  overflowing  all  its  banks. 
As  he  approached  death,  he  had  a  struggle  in  giving 
up  his  family,  but  he  gained  the  victory ;  and  when 
he  had  committed  them  to  the  care  and  protection  of 
Heaven,  his  faith  became  triumphant,  and  he  shouted 
for  joy.  In  reply  to  a  wish  expressed  by  his  friends, 
that  he  might  again  be  enabled  to  resume  his  labors, 
he  said,  1 1  feel  like  a  frail  vessel  that  has  been  long 
out  at  sea,  and  has  breasted  many  a  storm,  but  is  now 
safe  in  sight  of  the  destined  and  much-desired  port. 
My  friends  desire  that  I  should  return  again :  I  do 
not  desire  to  return,  but  the  will  of  the  Lord  be 
done.'  Having  given  his  family  his  dying  charge, 
and  lifted  up  his  voice  in  prayer  for  them  for  the  last 
time,  he  seemed  composed.  A  friend  said  to  him,  1 1 
am  here.'  He  replied,  '  God  is  here,  too.'  The  friend 
said,  'The  messenger  has  come.'  ' Sweet  messenger!' 
he  said,  and  spoke  no  more.  He  had  been  requested, 
when  he  could  not  speak,  if  he  felt  the  Lord  was 
with  him,  to  raise  his  hand.  He  did  so,  and  then 
sunk  calmly  in  death  to  rise  in  glory."* 

He  was  born  in  Mason  County,  Kentucky,  August 
29,  1789.  His  parents  were  religious,  and  trained 
him  up  "in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord." 
His  first  religious  impressions  were  received  at  the 

•General  Minutes,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  455. 


274  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

family  altar.  He  was  converted  and  joined  the 
Church  in  1809,  and  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1817. 
He  died  February  12,  1843,  at  the  residence  of  Rev. 
James  G.  Leach,  in  Jefferson  County.  This  year  was 
remarkable  for  the  success  of  the  Church  in  Ken- 
tucky, and  especially  in  the  city  of  Louisville. 

Very  early  in  the  year  the  three  charges  exhibited 
signs  of  prosperity.  In  the  class-room  were  to  be 
seen  the  first  indications  of  the  revival  that  soon 
spread  through  the  Church  and  the  community.  In- 
deed, before  the  first  of  January  the  Brook  Street 
Church  was  in  a  blaze.  A  meeting  had  been  com- 
menced, and  every  evening  the  house  was  crowded, 
attracted  first  by  the  remarkable  gifts  of  the  preacher, 
and  then  by  the  divine  power  that  was  manifested  in 
the  awakening  and  conversion  of  the  people.  Through 
many  weeks  the  meeting  was  protracted,  until  more 
than  a  hundred  souls  were  brought  into  the  fold  of 
Christ.  It  was  at  this  meeting  that  James  S.  Lith- 
gow,  at  the  present  time  a  distinguished  layman  in 
the  city,  was  happily  converted,  and  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church. 

James  S.  Lithgow  was  born  in  Pittsburg,  Penn- 
sylvania, November  29,  1812.  In  less  than  a  year 
after  his  birth  his  father  died,  in  September,  1813. 
After  the  death  of  her  husband,  Mrs.  Lithgow  re- 
turned to  the  home  of  her  parents,  who  lived  but  a 
few  years  afterward,  leaving  their  widowed  daughter 
alone  with  her  fatherless  child.  His  parents  and 
grandparents  were  members  of  the  Reformed  Pres- 
byterian Church,  and  from  these  his  early  religious 
instruction  .was  received.  He  remained  with  his 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  275 

mother  until  he  entered  his  twenty-first  year,  and 
then  in  December,  1832,  he  removed  to  the  city  of 
Louisville.  In  1836  his  mother  died. 

Thus  alone  in  the  world,  without  fortune,  and 
wholly  dependent  upon  his  own  resources,  Mr.  Lith- 
gow entered  upon  his  career.  How  well  he  has 
fought  the  battle  of  life,  the  honorable  position  he 
has  attained  among  his  fellow-men,  will  testify.  His 
great  energy,  application  to  business,  and  thorough 
acquaintance  with  those  principles  that  command  suc- 
cess, soon  placed  him  in  possession  of  an  ample  for- 
tune. This  by  disaster  was  lost,  but  he  did  not 
despond.  Recovering  from  his  losses,  he  was  again 
independent,  when  a  second  time,  by  fire,  his  prop- 
erty was  swept  away.  But  his  indomitable  energy 
again  rallied  him  to  the  work  of  recuperation.  The 
confidence  he  had  inspired  in  business  circles;  the 
ceaseless  industry  which  did  not  stop  to  waste  its 
strength  in  useless  repining;  the  persistent  effort, 
which  would  yield  to  no  discouragement — these  again 
declared  themselves  in  returning  prosperity.  For 
many  years  the  name  of  James  S.  Lithgow  has  been 
familiar  to  thousands  beyond  the  limits  of  mere  com- 
mercial associations. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh,  as  already  stated,  was  sent,  in 
1842,  to  Brook  Street  Station,  in  the  city  of  Louis- 
ville. During  the  revival  that  early  in  1843  began 
under  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  and  swept 
through  the  city,  Mr.  Lithgow  was  awakened  and 
converted  to  God,  and  immediately  joined  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  from  that  time  to  the 
present  he  has  been  closely  identified,  not  only  with. 


276  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

the  enterprises  of  the  Church  in  the  city  of  Louisville, 
but  throughout  the  land. 

He  has  twice  filled  the  office  of  mayor,  once 
elected  to  fill  a  vacancy,  and  the  second  time  elected 
for  a  regular  term  by  an  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  votes  of  his  fellow-citizens,  each  time  filling  the 
position  with  honor  to  himself  and  with  blessing  to 
the  city.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1870,  and  also  in  1874,  and  on  both  occa- 
sions contributed  much,  by  his  judicious  counsels,  to 
the  intelligent  action  of  that  representative  body  of 
the  Church. 

Mr.  Lithgow  is  a  man  of  large  and  liberal  views. 
No  one  can  look  upon  his  face  and  find  any  indica- 
tion of  narrowness  or  prejudice.  Frank,  courteous, 
generous,  warm  in  his  friendship,  princely  in  hospi- 
tality, with  his  purse  ever  open  to  relieve  the  needy 
and  his  heart  always  prepared  for  every  good  work, 
he  has  gathered  about  him  a  large  circle  of  admiring 
friends,  who  bear  testimony  to  his  worth  and  useful- 
ness. He  is  at  present  president  of  the  Church  Ex- 
tension Society. 

On  the  9th  of  March,  George  "W.  Brush,  who  was 
stationed  at  Fourth  Street,  wrote  to  the  Western  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  "  There  is  now  a  most  powerful  revival 
of  religion  in  the  three  stations  in  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky." In  that  Church,  under  the  leadership  of  this 
indefatigable  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  the  revival  was 
signal  in  its  power  and  widespread  in  its  influence; 
while  at  Eighth  Street  the  zealous  Holman  won  many 
trophies  to  his  Master. 

There  was  scarcely  during  this  year  a  charge  in 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  277 

the  conference  that  did  not  enjoy  "  seasons  of  refresh- 
ing." From  the  waters  of  the  Big  Sandy  River  to 
the  Tennessee  line,  and  from  the  beautiful  Ohio  to  the 
eastern  border  of  the  State,  praises  of  converted  souls 
fell  upon  the  ear  of  the  Church. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  meetings  was  a  camp- 
meeting  held  a  few  miles  from  Nicholasville. 

A  few  weeks  previous  to  the  conference  the  fourth 
quarterly-meeting  for  the  Versailles  Circuit  was  held 
in  Nicholasville.  Peter  O.  Meeks,  the  zealous  pastor, 
had  fallen  at  his  post.  Benjamin  T.  Crouch,  the  pre- 
siding elder,  requested  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Deering 
and  William  Atherton  in  conducting  the  meeting. 
"  It  was  a  time  of  great  power  and  grace ;  many  young 
men  and  young  ladies  joined  the  Church,  and  there 
were  many  clear  and  happy  conversions."  The  meet- 
ing continued  for  more  than  a  week,  and  sixty  per- 
sons were  added  to  the  Church.  Encouraged  by  what 
had  been  accomplished,  the  members  of  the  Church 
proposed  to  hold  a  camp-meeting  immediately  after 
conference,  and  requested  Mr.  Deering  and  the  other 
brethren  to  be  present.  The  session  of  the  annual 
conference  adjourned  on  Friday,  the  23d  of  Septem- 
ber, and  on  Saturday  Mr.  Deering  was  on  the  camp- 
ground, about  four  miles  from  Nicholasville.  A  large 
number  of  board  tents  had  been  erected,  each  provided 
with  a  stove,  in  case  the  weather  should  turn  cold. 
The  meeting  was  one  of  great  power.  Nearly  one 
hundred  persons  were  converted  and  joined  the  Church. 
The  entire  community  was  aroused.  Under  a  single 
sermon  preached  by  Mr.  Deering,  one  evening,  fully 
one  hundred  persons  came  to  the  altar  and  pleaded 


278  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

for  mercy,  and  more  than  one-half  of  them  were  con- 
verted within  a  few  hours. 

At  the  following  session  of  the  conference  Mr. 
Kavanaugh  was  returned  to  Brook  Street,  where  ex- 
traordinary success  continued  to  crown  his  ministry. 
The  Upper  Station,  now  known  as  Shelby  Street,  had 
been  formed  by  taking  off  a  large  membership  from 
Brook  Street;  yet,  through  the  untiring  labors  of  the 
pastor,  Brook  Street  continued  to  maintain  the  ele- 
vated position  it  had  won. 

The  two  years  spent  in  Louisville  were  years  not 
to  be  forgotten,  not  only  for  the  great  numbers  con- 
verted to  God,  but  for  the  elevated  position  Method- 
ism assumed  during  this  period.  Many  who  had 
hitherto  been  strangers  to  its  services  now  worshiped 
at  its  altars. 

The  year  from  the  conference  of  1843  to  1844  will 
long  be  memorable  in  the  history  of  Methodism,  not 
only  in  Kentucky,  but  in  the  United  States.  The 
General  Conference  was  held  this  year  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  commencing  the  first  day  of  May.  H.  B. 
Bascom,  William  Gunn,  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  Edward 
Stevenson,  B.  T.  Crouch,  and  G.  W.  Brush  were  the 
delegates  elected  to  represent  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence in  that  body.  It  would  have  been  impossible  to 
have  chosen  a  stronger  class  of  men  from  the  confer- 
ence, and,  indeed,  from  any  conference. 

The  Church,  at  no  period  of  its  history  in  Ken- 
tucky, has  produced  a  more  laborious  and  faithful 
minister  of  the  Gospel  than  William  Gunn.  He  was 
•the  son  of  James  Gunn,  a  useful  local  preacher  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  was  born  in  Cas- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  279. 

well  County,  North  Carolina,  on  the  13th  of  March, 
1797.  When  only  a  youth  he  embraced  religion,  and 
became  an  active  member  of  the  Church,  and  at  the 
conference  of  1819  entered  the  itinerant  field.  His 
first  appointment  was  to  the  Henderson  Circuit,  after 
which  he  successively  traveled  the  Barren,  Little  Ka- 
nawha,  Danville,  Madison,  Salt  River,  Shelby,  Lex- 
ington, Shelby,  Shippingsport,  and  Shelby  Circuits, 
Kentucky  District  (four  years),  Shelby  Circuit,  Louis- 
ville District  (two  years),  Lexington  District  and  Shel- 
by ville  District  (each  four  years),  Harrodsburg  Station, 
La  Grange,  Shelby,  and  Taylorsville  Circuits  (the  first 
two  years),  and  Lexington  District  (three  years). 

In  a  letter  to  the  author,  dated  January  3,  1870, 
the  Rev.  G.  W.  Brush  says : 

"About  this  time  (1825)  there  appeared,  among 
the  young  circuit  preachers,  a  zealous  recruit,  whose 
subsequent  labors,  in  various  portions  of  the  State, 
contributed  no  little  to  the  progress  of  genuine  Chris- 
tianity. William  Gunn,  as  he  was  seen  on  the  stand 
at  a  camp-meeting,  near  Mount  Washington,  Bullitt 
County,  appeared  to  be  about  twenty-six  years  of  age. 
He  looked  six  feet  in  height,  large  frame,  black  hair, 
brown  skin,  and  very  large  mouth.  His  voice  was 
rich,  and  uncommonly  strong,  and  had  been  consid- 
erably cultivated  in  the  art  of  music.  In  singing,  his 
articulation  was  accurate,  but  in  speaking  his  commu- 
nications were  imperfect.  Awkward  in  manne'r,  he 
went  into  company  rather  blunderingly.  Having  been 
brought  up  to  manual  labor — '  a  tiller  of  the  ground ' — 
he  transferred  his  working  habits  to  the  vineyard  of 
his  divine  Master,  and  became  a  fine  example  of  self- 


280  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

sacrifice,  toil,  and  success,  in  the  itinerant  ministry  of 
the  Methodist  Church. 

"  His  literary  attainments  were  meager,  for  good 
schools  were  then  rare,  and  means  in  possession  of 
the  family  scant;  but  his  zealous  and  studious  habits 
compensated,  in  a  good  measure,  for  these  early  wants. 
From  his  entrance  upon  the  work  of  a  traveling 
preacher,  he  read,  closely  and  perseveringly,  the  Sa- 
cred Scriptures,  and  those  authors,  particularly,  which 
were  designed  to  be  a  help  to  their  understanding. 
So  anxious  was  he  to  read  the  Bible  understand! ngly 
that  he  made  some  progress  in  acquainting  himself 
with  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments.  Other  studies,  also,  interested  him. 
Biography,  history,  poetry,  reviews,  and  works  of  de- 
votion, engaged  his  attention  and  heart.  A  rich  Chris- 
tian experience  was  one  of  the  chief  charms  of  his  life. 
He  knew  God  'as  a  sin-pardoning  God.'  Great  revi- 
vals of  religion  had  swept  over  the  land,  and  he  had 
taken  on  that  type  of  godliness  which  sacrificed  all 
for  the  cause.  A  clear  conversion  and  a  consistent 
growth  in  grace  were  the  elements  of  his  strength, 
and  the  harbingers  of  success  in  the  Christian  minis- 
try. This  ministry  he  did  not  take  up  in  haste,  but 
it  was  the  settled  conviction  of  his  mind  that  he  ought 
to  preach  the  Gospel.  Fully  aware  of  a  lack  of  a 
proper  literary  training,  and  pressed  with  that  peculiar 
feeling  of  unworthiness  which  true  godliness  and  sin- 
cere piety  never  fail  to  impart,  yet  he  was  wont,  with 
tears,  to  say,  '  Necessity  is  laid  upon  me ;  yea,  woe  is 
unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel.'  He  honestly 
believed  that  he  was  called  of  God  to  the  work  of  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  281 

ministry,  and  this  fixed  conviction,  which  grew  stronger 
as  he  lived  nearer  to  God,  emboldened  him  in  dangers 
and  strengthened  him  in  toils.  His  religious  convic- 
tions, and  his  physical  ability  to  endure  fatigue,  under 
the  blessing  of  God,  carried  him  forth,  for.largely  over 
thirty  years,  through  the  privations  and  toils  of  the 
itinerant  ministry.  He  traveled  some  of  the  hardest 
circuits  and  roughest  districts  in  the  then  compara- 
tively new  country.  He  was  prompt,  uniform,  and 
zealous.  He  had  practically  adopted  all  those  whole- 
some Methodist  rules  in  regard  to  early  rising,  regu- 
lar reading,  and  secret  prayer,  which  never  fail  to 
secure  the  blessing  of  God. 

"  He  was  largely  an  expository  preacher.  He  stud- 
ied closely  the  Epistles  to  the  Hebrews  and  the  Ro- 
mans, and  frequently  selected  his  subjects  for  public 
administration  from  these  inspired  letters — and  yet 
he  was  a  revival  preacher.  He  believed  and  prac- 
ticed the  doctrine  that  all  preachers  should  be  good 
exhorters;  and  therefore  usually  closed  his  sermons 
with  zealous  and  powerful  exhortations  to  the  Chris- 
tians to  press  on  in  holiness,  and  to  sinners  to  turn 
to  God.  He  was  gifted  in  prayer,  and  sung  exceed- 
ingly well ;  for  he  made  music  a  study,  and  persever- 
ingly  cultivated  the  fine  voice  which  God  had  given 
him.  "When  his  soul  was  happy  in  the  love  of  God, 
his  songs  and  prayers  were  thrilling  and  delightful. 

"  He  was  a  special  favorite  at  quarterly  and  camp- 
meetings,  and  his  usefulness  was  noted.  Late  and 
curly,  in  the  tents,  at  the  altar,  and  upon  the  public 
stand,  what  his  hand  found  to  do  he  did  with  his 
might  to  bring  sinners  home  to  God. 

24 


282  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

"  To  the  preachers,  when  on  districts,  he  was 
specially  and  uniformly  kind  and  attentive — looking 
not  only  after  their  temporal  comfort,  by  using  his 
influence  with  the  people  for  their  support,  but  he 
delighted  to  aid  young  preachers  in  their  pulpit 
preparations.  Here  he  Avas  superior,  as  a  guide,  to 
any  '  book  of  sermons  and  sketches,  to  aid  young 
ministers  in  preparing  for  the  pulpit.'  He  had  a 
sound  judgment,  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  way 
of  salvation,  and  was  '  apt  to  teach.'  As  years  and 
cares  and  toils  increased,  that  religious  tenderness 
grew  upon  him.  Where  he  lived  and  labored  the 
longest,  and  was  best  known,  he  was  most  beloved 
and  esteemed. 

"  He  continued  to  travel  to  the  close  of  his  life ; 
yet  the  small  salaries  which  he  received,  and  the 
meager  accommodations  made  for  the  domestic  com- 
fort of  the  preachers,  compelled  him  to  locate  his 
family.  They  lived  for  many  vears  in  a  rural  neigh- 
borhood in  the  county  of  Shelby,  where  his  faithful 
wife,  the  daughter  of  that  apostolic  man,  the  Rev. 
William  Adams,  watched  over  the  little  farm,  and 
took  care  of  the  children,  when  her  husband  was 
making  long  tours,  calling  sinners  to  repentance,  and 
building  up  the  Church  of  Christ." 

It  was  in  the  Summer  of  1837  when  we  made  the 
acquaintance  of  William  Gunn.  We  had  met  him 
before,  but  never  knew  him  well  until  then.  He  was 
the  presiding  elder  on  the  Louisville  District,  and  we 
were  preparing  to  enter  the  ministry.  Accepting  a 
kind  invitation  he  gave  us  to  accompany  him  to  his 
quarterly-meetings  on  the  Yellow  Bunks  and  Hart- 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGH.  283 

ford  Circuits,  in  the  lower  portion  of  his  district,  for 
several  weeks  we  enjoyed  his  society,  and  during  our 
long  rides  alone  on  horseback  received  from  him 
lessons  of  instruction  that  we  never  forgot.  Camp- 
meetings  were  connected  with  these  quarterly  occa- 
sions, and  they  were  seasons  of  extraordinary  interest. 
The  meeting  for  the  Yellow  Banks  Circuit  was  held 
at  Pleasant  Grove,  and  for  the  Hartford  at  No  Creek. 

Representing  the  local  preachers,  there  were  pres- 
ent John  Daviess,  John  Pinkston,  and  Joe  Miller — 
the  first  a  giant  in  the  pulpit,  the  second  a  saint  on 
earth,  and  the  embodiment  of  energy  and  zeal  in  the 
cause  of  Christ.  There  were  also  present  at  Pleasant 
Grove  several  members  of  the  Indiana  Conference. 
The  sermons  were  extraordinary,  the  exhortations 
powerful,  and  the  singing  as  the  music  of  heaven. 

In  this  assemblage  of  piety  and  talents  William 
Gunn  stood  as  a  prince.  He  preached  as  but  few 
men  could  preach.  His  sermons  were  plain,  practical, 
powerful,  and  yet  not  destitute  of  ornament.  It  was 
not,  however,  the  adorning  with  which  the  flowers  of 
rhetoric  invest  a  sermon,  but  that  derived  from  the 
rich  fountains  of  living  truth,  clothing  with  the  beau- 
ties of  the  Bible  every  argument  he  submitted  to  the 
vast  assemblies  that  hung  in  rapt  silence  on  his  lips. 

In  exhortation  he  was  overwhelming,  and  in  sing- 
ing his  rich  and  mellow  voice  rose  above  the  cries  of 
the  penitent  and  the  shouts  of  those  converted  to  God. 
The  effect  of  such  labors  may  be  imagined.  Many  at 
both  meetings,  through  his  instrumentality,  were  awak- 
ened and  persuaded  to  become  religious. 

A  few  weeks  later  he  held  his  quarterly-meeting 


284  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

for  the  Shelbyville  and  Brick  Chapel  Station,  which 
was  also  a  camp-meeting,  three  miles  east  of  Shelby- 
ville, where  similar  results  followed  his  labors  to  those 
to  which  we  have  already  referred. 

At  this  meeting  we  were  licensed  by  Mr.  Gunn 
to  preach  the  Gospel.  From  this  period  until  his 
death  we  knew  him  well,  and  think  we  never  knew 
a  better  man. 

His  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married  on  the  5th  of 
October,  1826,  was  Frances  Adams,  the  only  daugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  William  Adams,  of  whose  labors  we 
gave  an  account  in  a  former  chapter. 

"About  1830,  while  on  a  visit  to  his  father-in-law, 
and  sitting  in  his  house,  he  was  struck  with  lightning. 
The  electric  fluid,  having  first  made  rather  fearful 
havoc  of  the  stone  chimney,  passed  in  a  divided  cur- 
rent from  his  head  to  his  feet,  and  from  his  shoulder 
to  the  ends  of  the  fingers  of  his  left  hand ;  one  part 
of  it  penetrating  through  the  floor,  the  other  finding 
its  way  out  at  a  broken  glass  in  the  window.  His 
clothes  were  burnt  to  shreds,  his  boots  rent,  his  pen- 
knife rendered  strongly  magnetic,  and  his  flesh  fear- 
fully lacerated.  In  his  recovery  from  the  effects  of 
this  terrible  shock  he  always  recognized  most  grate- 
fully the  hand  of  Providence,  not  doubting  that  he 
had  been  spared  to  labor  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Church ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  about  two  months 
in  which  he  was  then  taken  off  from  his  labors,  the 
whole  thirty-five  years  of  his  ministry  was  a  period 
of  unbroken  active  service. 

"  Mr.  Gunn's  death  was  in  beautiful  harmony 
with  his  useful  and  honored  life.  His  wife,  observ- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  285 

ing  that  he  was  restless  in  the  night,  inquired  what 
was  the  matter;  and  his  reply  was,  'Nothing,  my 
dear,  only  I  am  thinking  of  my  reward/  Again  ho 
said,  '  I  have  no  anxiety,  I  have  perfect  peace/  To 
one  of  his  brethren  in  the  ministry  he  said,  ( Should 
I  not  live,  tell  the  conference  that  I  have  strong  faith 
in  our  holy  religion.  I  do  not  regret  having  spent 
my  life,  as  I  have,  as  an  itinerant  preacher.  I  would 
rather  travel  the  poorest  circuit  in  the  roughest  coun- 
try than  enjoy  any  worldly  distinction  that  could  be 
conferred  upon  me/  And  he  added,  '  If  I  should 
live,  this  work  shall  make  my  heart  rejoice,  and 
spend  the  remnant  of  my  days/  He  died  of  typhoid 
fever,  at  Lexington,  Ky.,  on  the  3d  of  September, 
1853,  in  the  fifty-seventh  year  of  his  age."  * 

The  action  of  the  General  Conference  in  the  cases 
of  Francis  A.  Harding,  whose  case  came  before  that 
body  on  an  appeal  from  the  Baltimore  Conference, 
and  of  James  O.  Andrew,  one  of  the  bishops  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  residing  in  the  State  of 
Georgia,  who  had  married  a  lady  that  was  the  owner 
of  slaves,  resulted  in  the  disruption  of  the  Church, 
and  its  separation  into  two  distinct  ecclesiastical  ju- 
risdictions. 

Henry  B.  Bascom  was  the  acknowledged  leader, 
not  only  in  the  delegation  from  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference, but  this  distinction  was  awarded  him  by  all 
the  delegates  from  the  slave-holding  States.  The  sev- 
eral papers  protecting  the  rights  of  the  Southern 
Church  emanated  from  his  gifted  pen.  Under  these 
circumstances,  it  would  have  been  eminently  improper 

*  Sprague's  Annals,  pp.  622,  023. 


280  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

for  any  member  from  Kentucky  to  have  participated 
to  any  great  extent  in  the  debates  on  the  floor  of  the 
conference;  hence  we  do  not  find  Mr.  Kavanaugh 
prominent  in  that  assembly.  No  man,  however, 
among  his  brethren,  was  wiser  in  counsel  or  more 
prompt  in  action  than  he.  He  was  born  in  Ken- 
tucky, and  brought  up  amid  the  institutions  of  the 
State.  He  believed,  too,  that  the  cases  of  both  Mr. 
Harding  and  Bishop  Andrew  were  fully  covered  by 
the  compromise  laws  of  the  Church;  and  thinking 
that  the  action  of  the  majority  might  lead  to  disaster, 
he  resisted  with  a  firm  hand  the  attempted  encroach- 
ments. 

The  division  of  the  Church  to  him  was  painful ; 
but  between  his  love  for  the  Church  as  it  had  existed 
and  duty,  he  found  no  difficulty  in  deciding.  He 
stood  side  by  side  with  the  representatives  from  the 
West  and  the  South,  and,  whether  for  weal  or  woe, 
adhered  to  their  fortunes. 

Kentucky  was  a  border  conference.  Its  northern 
border  extended  along  the  Ohio  River  more  than  six 
hundred  miles,  and  many  of  the  people,  although  not 
indorsing  the  action  of  the  majority  in  the  General 
Conference,  yet  sympathized  with  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church. 

In  1844  the  session  ot  the  Kentucky  Conference 
was  held  in  Bowling  Green.  It  was  the  last  time 
the  conference  met  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Bishop  Janes  pre- 
sided. At  an  early  day  in  the  session,  by  a  resolution 
unanimously  adopted,  the  delegates  were  requested, 
"as  soon  as  convenient,  to  report  to  the  conference 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  287 

their  reasons  and  ground  of  action  in  the  entire 
premises." 

The  resolution  was  preceded  by  the  statement  that 
they  had  "  united  with  the  General  Conference  in  the 
adoption  of  measures  contemplating  a  division  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  so  as  to  place  the  same 
under  two  separate  jurisdictions,  and  united  with  the 
Southern  delegates  in  recommending  a  convention  to 
meet  in  Louisville  the  "  following  May,  in  reference  to 
a  division  of  the  Church. 

Verbal  explanations  were  given  by  Dr.  Bascom, 
in  a  lengthy  and  able  address;  and  then  a  committee 
was  appointed,  of  which  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  a  mem- 
ber, to  take  into  consideration  the  entire  question  ef 
slavery  and  division. 

The  report  was  an  unqualified  indorsement  of  the 
delegates,  and  a  recommendation  that  a  convention  be 
held,  as  provided  in  the  action  of  the  delegates  from 
the  slave-holding  States,  in  the  city  of  Louisville,  to 
take  into  consideration  the  division  of  the  Church. 
E.  Stevenson,  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  H.  B.  Bascom,  B.  T. 
Crouch,  Wm.  Gunn,  G.  W.  Taylor,  G.  W.  Brush,  J.  C. 
Harrison,  B.  H.  McCown,  James  King,  John  James, 
and  T.  N.  Ralston  were  elected  delegates  to  the 
convention. 

We  would  not,  however,  lose  sight  of  Mr.  Kav- 
anaugh as  a  preacher.  Bishop  Janes  occupied  the 
pulpit  at  the  Methodist  Church  on  Sunday  at  eleven 
o'clock,  and  Mr.  Kavanaugh  in  the  evening.  The 
bishop  had  thrilled  the  audience.  His  text  was, 
"  Awake,  awake,  put  on  thy  strength,  O  Zion  :  put  on 
thy  beautiful  garments;  O  Jerusalem,  the  holy  city; 


288  LTFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

for  henceforth  there  shall  no  more  come  into  thee  the 
uncircumcised  and  the  unclean."5 

When  Mr.  Kavanaugh  entered  the  pulpit  the' 
house  was  crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity.  The 
people  of  Bowling  Green  had  known  him  in  other 
years  as  a  pulpit  orator  of  marked  ability.  After 
the  introductory  services  he  arose  and  announced 
his  text,  "  Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  do  exceed- 
ing abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think,  accord- 
ing to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us."* 

The  first  portion  of  the  sermon  was  an  able  argu- 
ment on  the  character  and  the  omnipotence  of  God. 
"  Now  unto  HIM  who  is  ABLE."  He  appeared,  how- 
ever, to  drag  heavily  for  the  first  forty  minutes,  and 
yet  there  was  nothing  commonplace  in  any  sentence 
he  uttered.  At  length  he  loosed  from  his  moorings, 
and  swung  clear,  then  shrugging  his  shoulders,  he 
bounded  away  into  a  world  of  beauties  where  he 
loved  to  roam  and  to  linger. 

"  Exceeding  abundantly,  above  all  that  we  ask 
or  think."  We  are  commanded  to  ask  largely,  that 
our  joy  may  be  full,  yet  "eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  the 
things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love 
him." 

"  Eye  hath  not  seen."  The  eye  has  seen  the  beau- 
ties of  creation.  The  earth  with  its  mountains,  its 
hills,  its  gardens  of  eclipsing  splendor,  its  grottoes,  its 
mighty  oceans,  its  islands,  its  majestic  rivers,  its  land- 
scapes, variegated  with  ten  thousand  beauties,  its 
pearls,  its  mines  of  wealth,  together  with  man's 

*  Isaiah  Y\\,l.  tEpliesians  iii,  20. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  289 

choicest  handiwork.  It  has  swept  the  heavens  from 
the  horizon  to  the  zenith,  and  descried  every  fixed 
planet,  every  rolling  system,  and  every  glimmering 
star.  It  has  rested  beneath  the  shceii  of  the  silvery 
moon,  and  looked  upon  its  pale,  cold,  beautiful  face; 
and  seen  the  sun  in  its  full-orbed  splendor;  but  has 
not  seen  the  things  that  God  has  prepared  for  them 
that  love  him. 

"  Ear  hath  not  heard."  The  ear  has  heard  the 
hoarse  voice  of  the  approaching  storm,  and  listened 
to  the  ocean's  roar.  It  has  heard  the  gentle  notes  of 
early  morn  chasing  away  the  gloom  of  night,  and  lis- 
tened to  the  soft  whispers  of  the  evening  breeze. 
The  music  of  the  spheres  has  charmed  the  soul  with 
sounds  of  sweetest  melody,  and  the  lullabies,  accom- 
panied with  a  mother's  gentle  tones,  have  driven  care 
and  sorrow  from  the  heart  of  infancy  and  childhood. 
The  songs  of  angels,  too,  have  fallen  on  mortal  ears, 
proclaiming  the  Redeemer's  birth,  and  the  story  of 
the  cross  has  for  ages  entranced  the  children  of  men. 
The  ear  has  heard  hymns  of  praise  to  God,  expres- 
sions of  joy  to  the  new-born  soul,  and  shouts  of  tri- 
umph falling  from  the  lips  of  the  dying  Christian  as 
he  catches  a  glimpse  of  the  celestial  city;  but  it  has 
not  heard  the  things  that  God  has  prepared  for  them 
that  love  him. 

"  Neither  have  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man." 
The  heart  of  man  has  conceived  more  than  the  eye 
has  seen  or  the  ear  has  heard.  It  has  not  only  sur- 
veyed the  earth,  the  sea,  the  sky,  and  taken  in  all 
their  beauties  at  a  glance,  and  felt  the  thrill  of  rap- 
ture as  music  akin  to  heaven  has  kindled  upon  the 

25 


290  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

soul.  It  has  not  only  followed  the  child  of  God  to 
the  margin  of  the  last  river,  and  seen  him  plunge  into 
the  stream  of  death,  but,  looking  beyond  the  chilling 
flood,  the  heart  has  contemplated  the  scenes  of  felicity 
and  grandeur  which  break  upon  the  disembodied 
spirit  when  it  drops  its  earthly  tabernacle  in  the  dust. 
The  splendors  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  its  jeweled 
gates,  its  walls  of  jasper,  its  streets  of  gold,  the  angels, 
the  companionship  of  saints,  the  songs  of  Moses  and 
the  Lamb,  the  River  of  Life,  the  Son  of  God,  are 
visions  which  arise  to  the  contemplation  of  the  Chris- 
tian ;  but  still,  there  "  have  not  entered  into  the  heart 
of  man  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  him." 

He  paused  for  a  few  moments,  his  eyes  apparently 
fixed  upon  some  object  of  entrancing  loveliness,  and 
then  exclaimed,  "  Imagination  leaps  on  lawless  wing, 
and  goes  out  upon  its  errand  of  exploration.  The 
vast  empire,  of  God  is  before  it." 

Turning  away  from  earth,  he  began  to  go  upward, 
climbing  the  loftiest  heights,  until  the  spires  upon  the 
temples  in  the  celestial  city  were  full  in  view.  The 
gates  of  heaven  rolled  back  on  golden  hinges,  and  the 
songs  of  the  redeemed  fell  upon  the  ear.  Paeans  of 
praise  and  shouts  of  triumph  sounded  through  all  the 
groves  of  bliss.  Entering  the  city,  he  beheld  the 
countless  millions  of  the  redeemed,  whose  "  robes 
were  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb,"  as  they  reposed  beneath  the  shade  of  the 
tree  of  life,  or  wandered  along  the  banks  of  the  beau- 
tiful river,  or  drank  from  the  purling  stream  that 
makes  glad  the  city  of  God.  "  There  was  no  night 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  291 

there,"  but  One,  the  brightness  of  whose  countenance 
exceeded  the  brilliancy  of  ten  thousand  suns,  before 
whom  the  hierarchies  of  heaven  bowed,  and  to  whom 
angel  and  archangel  paid  homage,  was  ever  attracting 
toward  him  the  redeemed,  who  cast  their  crowns  at 
his  feet. 

We  have  heard  Henry  Clay,  that  wonderful  orator, 
when  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame;  we  have  listened  to 
Bascom,  when  every  form  bent  forward  to  catch  the 
words  of  life  as  they  fell  from  his  burning"  lips ;  Maf- 
fitt,  too,  has  won  and  charmed  us  by  the  witchery  of 
his  eloquence ;  but  never,  either  before  or  since,  have 
we  witnessed  such  oratory.  There  was  a  stillness  in 
the  audience  that  may  be  conceived  of,  but  can  not 
be  described. 

We  next  meet  with  Mr.  Kavanaugh  in  Shelbyville, 
to  which  place  he  was  appointed  in  1844. 

Shelbyville  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  towns 
in  the  State,  and  in  culture  and  refinement  was  not 
exceeded  by  any.  It  offered  educational  facilities  of 
the  highest  order.  Its  academies  for  young  men,  and 
Science  Hill,  a  thing  of  beauty,  were  fountains  of 
blessing. 

The  Methodist  Church,  as  we  have  seen,  occupied 
a  commanding  eminence,  standing  abreast  with  other 
denominations.  It  was  represented  in  the  learned 
professions  and  in  all  the  walks  of  cultured  life. 
While  the  majority,  however,  were  in  full  accord  with 
the  Kentucky  Conference  on  the  questions  that  were 
disrupting  the  Church  there  was  a  minority  respect- 
able for  their  talents  and  piety  who  dissented  from 
their  views,  and  serious  apprehensions  were  felt  that 


292  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

there  might  be  a  division  in  the  society.  Nothing 
could  be  more  detrimental  to  its  influence  than  a  di- 
vided congregation.  If  this  calamity  could  be  averted 
no  one  was  more  competent  to  the  task  than  Mr. 
Kavanaugh.  He  addressed  himself  to  this  work  with 
the  prudence  that  had  distinguished  him  in  every 
duty  upon  which  he  had  entered.  In  many  portions 
of  the  State  minorities  were  found  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Dr.  Tomlinson,  whose  wonderful  gifts  gave 
him  a  commanding  influence  in  his  opposition  to  the 
action  of  the  conference. 

Several  weeks  passed  and  no  reference  on  either 
side  was  made  to  the  questions  at  issue,  and  then  occa- 
sional fireside  conversations  gave  some  prominence  to 
the  subject.  The  convention  would  meet  in  the  city 
of  Louisville  on  the  1st  of  May,  1845,  and  the  near 
approach  of  this  assemblage  of  learning  and  piety 
brought  things  to  a  crisis  in  Shelbyville.  On  Mon- 
day evening,  the  28th  of  April,  a  meeting  was  called 
at  the  Methodist  Church  for  the  purpose  of  adjusting 
the  differences,  if  possible,  and  thus  present  to  the 
Kentucky  Methodism  a  united  front. 

The  meeting  was  addressed  by  Mr.  Kavanaugh, 
representing  the  conference,  and  the  majority  of  the 
Church,  and  by  Judge  Martin  D.  McHenry,  who  was 
the  advocate  for  the  minority. 

In  a  clear,  concise  manner  Mr.  Kavanaugh  re-  , 
viewed  the  entire  ground,  canvassing  the  action  of  the 
General  Conference  in  the  case  of  Bishop  Andrew 
and  showing  that  in  opposing  these  extra-judicial  pro- 
ceedings the  delegates  from  the  Southern  and  South- 
western States  were  supported  by  the  law  of  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  293 

Church,  and  that  to  organize  the  conferences  repre- 
sented by  the  minority  in  the  General  Conference 
would  not  be  a  secession  nor  a  separation  from  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  but  only  from  the  juris- 
diction of  the  General  Conference  of  said  Church,  as 
then  constituted. 

The  statements  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh  were  not  denied 
by  Judge  McHenry,  nor  were  his  arguments  answered. 
He  made  only  a  brief  response,  urging  adherence  to 
"  the  old  Church."  The  restlessness  that  had  existed 
for  several  months  was  calmed,  and  the  Church  at 
Shelbyville  was  prepared  to  accept  whatever  action 
the  convention  might  adopt  in  accordance  with  the 
instructions  of  the  Kentucky  Annual  Conference. 

In  company  with  Mr.  Kavanaugh  we  left  Shelby- 
ville on  the  following  morning  by  private  conveyance 
for  Louisville.  On  the  way  we  conversed  freely  on 
the  crisis  that  had  befallen  the  Church,  and  in  the 
strongest  terms  he  expressed  it  as  his  opinion  that 
there  was  no  other  way  to  protect  the  integrity  of 
Methodism  and  to  perpetuate  its  existence,  not  only 
in  the  South,  but  even  in  Kentucky,  than  by  cutting 
loose  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  General  Conference 
of'the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

The  convention  met  at  the  appointed  time,  and  the 
voice  of  no  delegate  was  heard  with  greater  effect 
than  that  of  H.  H.  Kavanaugh. 

During  the  session  addresses  were  delivered  by 
Dr.  George  F.  Pierce,  Judge  Longstreet,  and  others 
that  thrilled  the  large  assemblies  that  filled  old  Fourth 
Street  Church,  but  no  one  portrayed  the  future  of 
Methodism  in  the  South  in  darker  colors,  or  the  relig- 


294  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

ious  condition  of  the  negro,  deprived  of  the  Gospel, 
if  we  bowed  in  silence  to  the  impious  demands  of  the 
majority  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844  than  did 
this  favorite  son  of  Kentucky. 

The  compromise  law  of  the  Church  had  been  trod- 
den down,  the  temple  of  fanaticism  had  been  reared 
upon  its  ruins,  and  he  had  no  further  compromise  to 
make.  The  salvation  of  the  master  and  the  slave  had 
been,  under  God,  largely  intrusted  to  the  Methodist 
Church,  and  he  would  not  place  himself  nor  aid  in 
placing  his  brethren  in  a  position  where  they  could 
not  proclaim  the  tidings  of  a  Redeemer's  love  to  both. 
A  tide  of  emotion  such  as  is  seldom  seen  swept  over 
the  audience  as  he  referred  to  the  possibility  of  chang- 
ing the  map  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  Southern 
States,  with  Methodism  blotted  out. 

Turning  to  the  convention  he  exclaimed  in  the 
beautiful  words  of  Ruth  to  Naomi,  "  Whither  thou 
goest  I  will  go ;  and  where  thou  lodgest  I  will  lodge ; 
thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God; 
where  thou  diest  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be  bur- 
ied; the  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and  more,  also,  if  aught 
but  death  part  thee  and  me." 

After  mature  deliberation  the  METHODIST  EPIS- 
COPAL CHUECH,  SOUTH,  was  organized,  Mr.  Kavan- 
augh  placing  himself  on  record  with  the  South  in 
every  particular. 

If  in  Shelbyville,  after  the  adjournment*  of  the 
convention,  there  was  any  friction,  it  was  easily  sub- 
dued. His  popularity  in  that  community  never 
waned. 

At  the  session  of  the  Kentucky  Conference,  held 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGB.  295 

in  Frankfort,  commencing  September  10, 1845,  Bishop 
Soule  presided. 

Among  the  resolutions  adopted  by  that  body  we 
record  the  following: 

Itesolved,  That,  as  a  conference,  claiming  all  the 
rights,  powers,  and  privileges  of  an  annual  confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  we  adhere 
to  the  Metliodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  that  all  our 
proceedings,  records,  and  official  acts  hereafter  be  in 
the  name  and  style  of  the  Kentucky  Annual  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Churchy  South, 

The  first  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  appointed  for  1st  of 
May,  1846.  The  place,  Petersburg,  Virginia.  The 
delegates  from  the  Kentucky  Conference  were  H.  B. 
Bascom,  H.  H.  Kavanangh,  B.  T.  Crouch,  J.  Stam- 
per, G.  W.  Brush,  E.  Stevenson,  T.  N.  Ralston,  N.  B. 
Lewis,  C.  B.  Parsons,  and  J.  C.  Harrison. 

The  appointment  for  this  year  opened  before  Mr. 
Kavanaugh  a  new  and  untried  field.  He  was  sent  to 
the  Lexington  District  as  presiding  elder.  This  posi- 
tion afforded  him  a  larger  territory  for  the  exercise 
of  his  extraordinary  gifts,  and  it  gave  to  a  larger  num- 
ber of  people  the  opportunity  of  hearing  the  Gospel 
from  his  lips. 

He  was  preceded  by  Benjamin  T.  Crouch,  who  had 
presided  for  four  years  over  that  district,  and  was  dis- 
tinguished as  one  of  the  ablest  preachers  in  the  West. 

But  few  men  have  entered  the  ministry  in  any  age 
of  the  Church,  or  prosecuted  the  duties  of  the  sacred 
office,  with  more  unremitting  ardor,  than  Benjamin 
T.  Crouch.  As  a  preacher,  no  man  was  better  known 


296 

in  Kentucky,  and  none  was  more  beloved  by  the 
Church.  He  was  born  in  Newcastle  County,  Dela- 
ware, July  1,  1796.  His  father,  John  Crouch,  emi- 
grated from  Delaware  to  Cecil  County,  Maryland,  and 
in  the  Autumn  of  1800  removed  to  the  West,  and  set- 
tled near  Washington,  Pennsylvania.  His  parents  were 
both  Methodists,  and  distinguished  for  their  piety  and 
devotion  to  the  Church.  When  in  the  tenth  year  of 
his  age  he  was  bereft  of  his  pious  father,  who  died  in 
triumph,  leaving  Mrs.  Crouch  with  eight  children,  in 
reduced  circumstances.  In  referring  to  his  widowed 
mother,  Mr.  Crouch  says :  "  My  dear  mother  survived 
my  father  thirty-six  years;  married  a  second  husband; 
was  the  mother  of  three  additional  children ;  lived  to 
see  her  eleven  children  all  grown  and  in  the  Church 
with  herself;  and  then  having  been  fifty-six  years  a 
devoted  and  useful  member  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
she  closed  the  mortal  scene  in  perfect  peace,  saying  to 
her  family  and  friends,  '  Meet  me  in  heaven/  "  * 

The  death  of  his  father,  and  the  destitute  circum- 
stances in  which  his  mother  was  left,  rendered  it  neces- 
sary, as  he  was  the  eldest  son,  that  as  far  as  possible 
he  should  contribute  by  his  labor  to  lighten  the  bur- 
dens of  his  widowed  mother.  Great  as  was  the  pleas- 
ure he  derived  from  this  source,  it  nevertheless  de- 
prived him  of  the  advantage  of  an  early  education. 

Possessing  much  of  martial  spirit,  he  entered  the 
American  army  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  though  only 
a  youth  of  sixteen,  bore  himself  gallantly,  and  ren- 
dered himself  a  favorite  with  both  his  companions-in- 
arms and  the  officers  in  command. 


Manuscript  of  the  llev.  B.  T.  Crouch. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  297 

His  father's  house  had  been  a  place  of  rest  for  the 
weary  itinerant  from  long  before  his  birth.  The  ven- 
erable Asbury,  AVhatcoat,  Fleming,  and  others,  dis- 
tinguished in  the  early  history  of  the  Church,  were 
often  refreshed  beneath  his  roof.  Growing  up  amid 
such  associations,  he  could  not  remember  when  he  was 
first  impressed  on  the  subject  of  religion.  It  was  not, 
however,  until  he  had  nearly  closed  his  twentieth  year 
that  he  became  a  member  of  the  Church.  It  was  in 
the  month  of  May,  1816,  that  he  took  this  important 
step,  and  at  a  camp-meeting  held  in  Ohio,  in  August 
following,  "  he  obtained  by  faith  the  blessing  of  peace 
with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  In  the 
dewy  morn  of  childhood  he  had  frequently  thought 
that  the  path  of  duty  might  some  day  lead  him  into 
the  ministry ;  but  now  soundly  converted  to  God,  the 
impression  was  deep  and  abiding  "  that  God  had  called 
him  to  the  tremendous  work  of  the  Christian  minis- 
try."* Unwilling  to  enter  upon  a  calling  involving 
such  fearful  responsibilities,  he  endeavored  for  three 
years,  by  performing  the  duties  of  class-leader  and  ex- 
horter,  to  divest  himself  of  these  impressions.  "  With- 
out resources,  not  even  a  horse  to  ride,  or  money  to 
buy  one  with ;  his  education  limited  not  only  to  the 
English  language,  but  almost  to  the  spelling-book  and 
the  Bible,"  he  framed  every  excuse  for  refusing  to 
obey  the  behests  of  conscience.  A  severe  attack  of 
sickness  bringing  him  to  the  margin  of  the  grave  af- 
forded him  an  opportunity  for  an  examination  of  his 
conduct,  which  resulted  in  the  decision  to  oifer  him- 
self to  the  conference.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  on 

*  Manuscript  of  the  Rev.  B.  T.  Crouch. 


298  LIFE   AND   TIMES  OF 

the  10th  of  April,  1819,  by  the  Rev.  Moses  Grume, 
at  a  quarterly-meeting  held  for  the  White  Water  Cir- 
cuit, near  Conuersville,  Indiana,  and  on  the  15th  of 
the  month,  tinder  the  direction  of  the  presiding  elder, 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  a  traveling  preacher,  on 
the  same  circuit,  as  the  colleague  of  the  Rev.  Allen 
Wiley.  He  began  his  itinerant  career  "on  foot,  with 
his  saddle-bags  on  his  arm,  a  part  of  a  Bible,  a  hymn- 
book,  and  a  few  articles  of  clothing."  At  the  follow- 
ing session  of  the  Ohio  Conference,  Mr.  Crouch  was 
admitted  on  trial,  and  appointed  to  the  Oxford  Cir- 
cuit, with  Mr.  Wiley  in  charge,  with  whom  he  had 
already  been  associated.  In  1820  he  was  sent  to  the 
Little  Kanawha  Circuit,  which  placed  him  in  the  Ken- 
tucky Conference,  which  had  be'en  formed  at  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  the  May  previous.  In  1821  his  field 
of  labor  was  the  Sandy  River  Circuit,  in  the  Jackson's 
Purchase,  embracing  portions  of  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee, with  Lewis  Parker  as  his  colleague.  With  his 
health  greatly  impaired  by  his  excessive  labor  and 
constant  exposure,  "swimming  water-courses  on  horse- 
back, sleeping  in  cold  rooms,  hard  and  irregular  liv- 
ing, preaching  day  and  night,  performing  long  and 
fatiguing  rides,  and  reading  and  studying  under  un- 
favorable circumstances,"  he  presented  himself  at  the 
conference  of  1822.  The  report  of  the  year's  labor 
through  which  he  had  passed  was  flattering  alike  to 
himself  and  his  colleague.  "Several  new  societies  had 
been  organized,  classes  established  the  previous  year 
revived  and  increased,  two  large  circuits  formed,  and 
the  whole  work  left  in  a  prosperous  condition."  At 
the  conference  of  1822  he  was  sent  to  the  Shelby  Cir- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  299 

cuit,  then  embracing  Shelbyville,  in  a  healthy  portion 
of  the  State,  as  the  colleague  of  Simon  Peter.  His 
appointment  for  this  year  was  made  in  reference  to 
the  recovery  of  his  health.  It  was  on  this  circuit 
that  he  first  exhibited  the  extraordinary  ability  as  a 
polemic,  that  distinguished  him  through  all  his  fu- 
ture life. 

We  have  previously  referred  to  the  prominence  oc- 
cupied by  the  Baptist  Church  in  Kentucky.  In  Shelby 
County  they  held  a  high  position  in  public  confidence, 
while  their  numerical  strength  was  in  excess  of  any 
other  denomination.  Several  ministers  of  that  Church 
who  ranked  among  their  ablest  divines,  some  of  whose 
names  have  already  been  mentioned,  were  residents  of 
this  county.  With  a  jealous  eye,  and  with  unceasing 
vigilance,  they  guarded  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  their 
own  communion,  and  with  equal  anxiety  watched  the 
increasing  luster  of  Methodism.  A  presentation  of 
the  doctrine  of  baptism,  whether  as  to  subjects  or 
mode,  according  to  the  tenets  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
was  regarded  by  them  as  an  infringement  on  their 
rights  and  privileges.  On  these  questions  Mr.  Crouch 
was  irrefutable.  He  taught  that  sprinkling  or  pour- 
ing is  plainly  set  forth  in  the  Holy  Scripture  as  Chris- 
tian baptism ;  and  by  the  same  divine  authority  he 
established  the  right  of  infants  to  membership  in  the 
Church,  and  to  baptism  the  ordinance  of  initiation. 
The  chain  of  his  argument  was  so  complete  that  no 
man  could  successfully  reply  to  him,  and  but  few  had 
the  presumption  to  attempt  it.  In  every  instance  where 
he  was  met  in  debate  he  was  left  master  of  the  field, 
until  soou  his  oft-repeated  invitations  to  Baptist  min- 


300  LIFE   AND  TIMES  OF 

isters  to  discuss  the  issues  between  the  two  respective 
Churches  passed  unheeded. 

On  the  1st  of  July,  1823,  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Hannah  V.  W.  Talbott,  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Nathan- 
iel Talbott,  who  resided  near  Shelbyville.  Amid  all 
the  vicissitudes  incident  to  the  life  of  an  itinerant 
Methodist  preacher,  she  proved  to  be  his  stay  and 
help.  His  labors  on  this  circuit  were  greatly  blessed, 
and  many  were  added  to  the  Church;  and  the  next  year 
he  was  returned  to  the  same  charge,  with  Shelbyville 
and  Brick  Chapel  detached  and  formed  into  a  station. 
His  ministry  the  second  year  was  equally  successful, 
though  his  health  continued  feeble.  At  the  conference 
of  1824,  he  was  so  reduced  in  strength  as  to  be  unable 
to  receive  an  appointment.  He  says:  "At  this  con- 
ference my  skeleton  appearance  procured  for  me  the 
commiseration  of  all  the  members,  and  their  kindness, 
with  much  persuasion,  prevailed  on  me  to  take  a  su- 
perannuated relation."  He  returned  to  the  effective 
ranks  at  the  following  conference,  and  was  appointed 
to  the  Lexington  Circuit,  a  large  and  laborious  field, 
including  Frankfort,  Versailles,  Georgetown,  and 
Nicholasville,  besides  many  country  places.  In  1826 
he  was  stationed  in  Frankfort  and  Newcastle,  the 
two  towns  being  twenty-six  miles  apart,  "having 
some  fruit  at  each  place."  At  the  conference  of  1827 
he  was  so  completely  worn  down  that  he  was  once 
more  persuaded  to  accept  a  superannuated  relation,  in 
which  he  continued  for  three  years.  He,  however, 
was  not  idle;  he  preached  from  one  to  three  times  a 
week,  traveled  extensively,  and  lectured  often  in  be- 
half of  the  American  Bible  and  Colonization  Socie- 


BISHOP   KA  VAN A  UGH.  301 

ties,  agencies  for  each  of  which  he  had  accepted  at 
different  times. 

When  he  was  first  placed  on  the  superannuated 
list,  he  removed  to  Newcastle,  where  his  family  lived 
the  most  of  the  time  for  thirteen  years.  His  Journal 
abounds  in  kind  and  grateful  references  to  the  people 
of  that  village.  Under  his  auspices  the  first  Method- 
ist church  edifice  in  Newcastle  was  built.  Reporting 
himself  effective  in  1830,  he  was  sent  to  Frankfort, 
and  the  next  year,  as  presiding  elder,  to  the  Ohio 
(afterward  Louisville)  District,  on  which  he  remained 
for  four  years.  The  village  of  Shelbyville,  in  which 
we  were  brought  up,  was  embraced  in  his  district  at 
this  time;  and  at  a  quarterly-meeting  which  he  held 
for  the  Church  in  that  place,  we  had  the  privilege, 
on  the  1st  of  September,  1833,  of  joining  the  Church 
under  his  ministry.  In  1835  he  was  appointed  to 
Shelbyville,  Brick  Chapel,  and  Christiansburg,  with 
Henry  N.  Vandyke  as  his  colleague.  Here  our  ac- 
quaintance with  him  became  intimate.  Preparing,  as 
we  were,  for  the  ministry,  and  he  sustaining  to  us  the 
endearing  relation  of  pastor,  we  learned  to  love  him 
as  we  have  loved  but  few  men  ;  nor  have  we  forgot- 
ten the  many  and  useful  lessons  he  taught  us.  From 
this  charge  we  follow  him  to  the  city  of  Louisville, 
and  find  him  stationed,  with  John  C.  Harrison  as  his 
colleague,  at  Fourth  and  Eighth  Street  Churches. 
Unaccustomed  to  the  confinement  of  a  station,  the 
labors  of  Shelbyville  and  Louisville  brought  him 
near  the  grave.  Beloved,  as  he  was,  by  the  Church, 
and  anxious  as  they  were  for  his  return  the  second 
year  to  the  city,  it  was  evident,  long  before  the  close 


302  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

of  the  year,  that  his  removal  was  necessary  to  the 
protraction  of  his  life.  Weary  and  worn  in  the  per- 
formance of  the  oft-recurring  duties  of  the  pastorate, 
he  never  ceased  to  work,  but  prosecuted  with  unre- 
mitting energy  his  high  and  holy  calling.  He  says : 
"The  labors  of  the  city  did  not  suit  my  state  of 
health ;  I  was  wasting  away ;  with  a  large  frame  of 
bones,  one  inch  over  six  feet  in  stature;  my  weight 
during  most  of  the  year  was  only  one  hundred  and 
twenty  pounds."  In  his  Diary  he  refers  in  touching 
language  to  the  kindness  of  the  people,  their  anxiety 
for  his  reappointment,  his  feeble  health,  and  "  skele- 
ton appearance."  It  was  during  this  year  that  a  most 
amusing  incident  occurred.  The  office  of  a  physician 
in  the  city  was  located  on  a  principal  street.  He  had 
in  his  office  a  human  skeleton  that  was  concealed  in  a 
case  that  was  fastened  to  the  wall.  It  was  so  ar- 
ranged with  springs  that,  by  a  person  treading  on  a 
plank  in  the  floor  in  front  of  it,  the  door  of  the  case 
would  fly  open,  and  the  arms  of  the  skeleton  would 
encircle  him.  A  young  man,  not  accustomed  to  such 
objects,  early  one  morning  entered  the  office  of  the 
physician,  and  before  he  was  aware,  found  himself  in 
the  embrace  of  the  skeleton.  Violently  tearing  him- 
self away,  he  rushed  from  the  room  in  great  alarm, 
and  reaching  the  street,  ran  at  full  speed  for  several 
squares.  Just  as  he  imagined  he  was  safe,  he  sud- 
denly turned  the  corner  of  a  square,  when  he  was 
confronted  by  Mr.  Crouch.  Stopping  for  a  moment, 
the  horror-stricken  youth  looked  upon  the  tall,  pale 
stranger,  and  exclaimed,  "O  ho!  old  fellow!  you 
can 't  fool  me,  if  you  have  got  clothes  on  !"  then  leav- 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  303 

ing  the  preacher,  equally  surprised,  he   soon   disap- 
peared amid  the  passing  crowd. 

At  the  following  conference,  Mr.  Crouch,  "  as  a 
life-preserving  expedient,"  was  placed  on  horseback 
again,  and  returned  to  the  Louisville  District,  from 
which  he  had  been  absent  two  years.  His  labors  on 
this  district  were  signally  blessed.  At  no  period, 
before  or  since,  has  the  Church  within  the  territory 
embraced  in  this  field  of  labor  at  that  time,  enjoyed 
such  prosperity.  At  the  expiration  of  four  years  a  net 
increase  of  more  than  two  thousand  members  showed 
how  faithfully  he  and  his  associates  performed  their 
duties.  The  unparalleled  prosperity  of  Methodism  in 
that  portion  of  the  Green  River  country  over  which 
he  presided,  induced  the  most  violent  opposition  to  its 
advancement  and  success.  The  accomplishment  of 
good  was  the  aim  of  his  great  and  noble  soul,  and  as 
the  leader  of  the  hosts,  he  stood  upon  the  watch-tower, 
and  now  defended  the  doctrines  peculiar  to  Methodism, 
and  then  enforced  the  great  practical  teachings  of 
Christianity.  Under  his  administration  the  Church 
feared  no  enemy  nor  shunned  any  attack,  but  enjoyed 
a  feeling  of  security,  though  opposition  in  any  form 
should  manifest  itself.  Christianity,  in  the  southern 
portion  of  his  district,  in  many  communities,  was  only 
in  its  infancy,  and  Methodism  was  fast  occupying  the 
ground.  It  was  as  late  as  the  early  part  of  this  year 
(1826)  that  the  now  flourishing  and  elegant  town  of 
Owensboro  was  first  placed  on  the  plan  of  the  Hart- 
ford Circuit  as  a  preach  ing-place.  Occasionally,  pre- 
vious to  that  time,  Methodist  preachers  had  passed 
through  the  village,  and  preached  to  the  people,  but 


304  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

no  arrangement  had  hitherto  been  made  for  regular 
circuit-preaching.  From  the  introduction  of  Method- 
ism into  that  community,  the  message  of  salvation, 
as  delivered  by  the  preachers,  was  not  heartily  em- 
braced ;  the  preachers  themselves,  however,  met  with 
a  cordial  reception,  and  the  repetition  of  their  visits 
was  most  earnestly  solicited.  Previous  to  1837  a 
small  but  interesting  society  had  been  organized.  The 
Baptist  Church  had  also  established  a  small  congre- 
gation. There  being  no  church  edifice  in  the  place, 
each  denomination  worshiped  in  the  Winter  in  the 
seminary,  and  in  the  Summer  in  the  court-house.  In 
the  month  of  June,  1839,  a  union  meeting  was  held  in 
the  village,  in  which  the  Baptist,  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian,  and  the  Methodist  Churches  partici- 
pated. The  pastor  of  the  Methodist  Church  was 
Daniel  S.  Barksdale,  and  his  colleague  was  Richard 
Holding,  who  sustained  that  year  a  supernumerary 
relation,  but  who  had  been  the  pastor  of  the  Church 
the  previous  year.  During  the  meeting  an  interview 
was  sought  with  Mr.  Holding,  and  the  ungenerous 
proposition  from  a  leading  Baptist  minister  made,  that 
the  Methodists  and  Baptists  unite  to  break  down  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterians.  This  met  with  a  prompt 
resistance  from  Mr.  Holding;  his  spirit  was  too  cath- 
olic to  entertain  any  such  suggestion.  Difficulties, 
however,  resulted  from  the  interview  that  not  only 
disturbed  the  harmony  of  the  meeting,  but  destroyed, 
to  a  great  extent,  its  beneficial  results  in  the  commu- 
nity. An  unrelenting  war  from  that  period  was 
waged  against  Methodism.  It  was  shown  no  quar- 
ter— it  asked  none.  The  several  attacks  that  were 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  305 

made  upon  Its  doctrines  and  peculiarities  demanded  a 
response.  In  the  month  of  May,  1840,  in  accordance 
with  a  previous  announcement,  Mr.  Crouch  proposed 
to  deliver  a  series  of  sermons  on  the  subjects,  the 
mode,  and  the  design  of  Christian  baptism.  Among 
the  ablest  polemics  in  the  Baptist  Church  in  Ken- 
tucky, no  man  occupied  a  position  so  prominent  as 
John  L.  Waller,  of  Louisville.  He  was  not  a  minis- 
ter of  the  Gospel,  not  having  been  licensed  to  preach 
until  a  later  date.  He  was  the  son  of  a  distinguished 
Baptist  preacher,  and  was  conducting  at  this  time, 
with  signal  ability,  the  Western  Recorder,  a  paper  pub- 
lished in  the  interest  of  the  Baptist  Church.  He  was 
in  the  habit  of  delivering  what  he  styled  lectures  on 
baptism  wherever  the  interest  of  his  denomination 
might  demand  it.  His  public  speeches  were  not  only 
distinguished  for  their  force,  but  also  for  the  bitterest 
invective,  in  which  he  so  freely  indulged.  On  this 
occasion  he  appeared  in  Owensboro,  accompanied  by 
several  Baptist  ministers,  for  the  purpose  of  replying 
to  the  presiding  elder  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

Mr.  Crouch  held  his  quarterly-meeting  on  Satur- 
day and  Sunday,  and  on  Monday  commenced  his  lec- 
tures on  baptism.  The  assembly  that  attended  was 
vast.  He  occupied  the  court-house.  Twice  on  each 
day,  for  three  successive  days,  and  on  each  occasion  for 
three  full  hours,  he  appeared  before  the  people,  set- 
ting forth  the  peculiar  views  of  the  Church  of  which 
he  was  the  representative,  and  defended  those  views 
witli  a  force  that  carried  conviction  of  their  truth  to 
the  hearts  of  hundreds.  During  all  this  time  no  as- 
perities were  indulged  in,  no  words  of  bitterness  fell 


306  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

from  his  tongue.  With  that  Christian  charity  that 
conceded  to  those  from  whom  he  differed  the  same 
honesty  he  claimed  for  himself  and  his  brethren, 
every  sentiment  he  uttered  was  invested.  Finishing 
the  work  he  had  undertaken,  he  left  for  another  por- 
tion of  his  district.  His  praise,  however,  was  on 
every  lip,  and  his  name  became  embalmed  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  while  the  truths  he  so  ably  and 
so  fearlessly  defended  have  in  that  community  ever 
since  been  respected.  On  the  day  following  the  de- 
parture of  Mr.  Crouch,  Mr.  Waller  began  his  reply. 
He  certainly  discussed  the  points  at  issue  with  marked 
ability.  With  every  argument  that  can  be  adduced 
in  support  of  the  theory  of  the  Baptist  Church,  on 
these  subjects,  he  was  perfectly  familiar.  For  two 
days  he  leveled  his  artillery  against  Methodism,  but 
like  a  giant,  it  remained  unmoved  at  each  successive 
shock.  Words  of  bitterness  ever  and  anon  fell  from 
his  lips,  and  yet  the  truths  against  which  he  battled 
stood  forth  in  peerless  beauty.  The  names  of  the 
sainted  dead,  the  heroes  of  Methodism,  men  who  had 
done  so  much  for  Christianity  and  the  world,  were 
called  up  from  their  beds  of  dust  to  be  the  victims 
of  his  abuse ;  and  yet  the  Church  in  which  they  had 
labored,  and  upon  whose  altars  they  had  sacrificed 
their  all,  stood  forth,  "a  thing  of  life,"  blessing  and 
being  blessed.  Himself  chagrined,  his  brethren  mor- 
tified, he  quit  the  field,  only  regretting  that  he  had 
been  so  rash. 

In  1841  Mr.  Crouch  was  appointed  to  the  Lexing- 
ton District,  having  spent  eight  years  out  of  the  ten 
preceding  on  the  Louisville.  His  next  field  of  labor 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  307 

was  the  Shelbyville  District,  on  both  of  which  he  re- 
mained four  years.  In  1849  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Harrodsburg  District.  An  attack  of  cholera  near  the 
close  of  the  year,  and  the  loss  of  health  resulting  from 
it,  induced  him  to  ask  to  be  relieved  from  so  heavy 
a  work  at  the  ensuing  conference,  and  hence  the  next 
year  we  find  him  on  the  Newcastle  Circuit,  on  which 
he  remains  for  two  years.  In  1852  he  was  stationed 
in  Carrollton,  where  he  had  been  the  chief  instrument 
in  building  up  the  Church  thirty  years  before,  where 
he  spent  two  years  pleasantly  to  himself  and  profita- 
bly to  the  Church.  From  Carrollton  we  follow  him 
to  La  Grange  and  Westport  Circuit,  to  which  he  was 
returned  the  second  year.  During  all  these  years  he 
had  "  never  been  absent  from  an  annual  conference, 
had  never  reached  the  session  too  late,  or  left  too  early ; 
never  was  absent  from  conference  business  but  once, 
and  then  only  fifteen  minutes,  to  have  a  tooth  ex- 
tracted." Here  his  diary  closes. 

"At  the  ensuing  conference  he  obtained  a  super- 
annuated relation,  and  for  the  past  two  years  had  been 
engaged  in  superintending  a  school  at  Goshen,  Oldham 
County,  Kentucky.  Only  a  few  weeks  since  he -sold 
this  property,  with  the  intention  of  entering  again 
upon  the  regular  itinerant  work,  as  announced  by 
himself  in  the  Christian  Advocate  very  recently.  But 
his  work  was  done.  For  several  days  he  had  been 
complaining  of  a  pain  in  his  head,  but  it  had  not  in- 
terfered with  his  business.  He  died  on  Monday,  April 
26,  1858,  at  8  o'clock  P.  M.  On  the  Sabbath  pre- 
ceding he  had  preached  two  sermons  at  Goshen  ;  was 
in  the  school-room  all  of  Monday;  ate  his  supper  as 


308  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

usual,  and  was  unusually  cheerful.  After  family  wor- 
ship he  went  to  his  room,  having  urged  his  wife  to 
spend  the  night  with  a  sick  neighbor.  Soon  after  she 
left,  his  little  daughter,  who  was  in  the  room  with  him, 
says  he  arose  and  attempted  to  kneel,  and  in  doing  so 
fell.  Assistance  was  called,  and  as  his  son  and  wife 
were  endeavoring  to  raise  him,  he  remarked,  '  I  be- 
lieve my  head  will  cause  me  to  go  distracted/  These 
were  his  last  words.  In  ten  minutes  after  they  laid 
him  on  his  bed  he  was  dead.  He  was  buried  at 
La  Grange — the  funeral  services  conducted  by  the 
Rev.  William  Holman.  His  history  is  identified  with 
the  history  of  Methodism,  Christianity,  morals,  and 
education  in  Kentucky  for  thirty-seven  years.  His 
character  as  a  man  and  a  minister  is  before  the  Church 
and  the  world,  '  known  and  read.'  In  his  early  ded- 
ication to  God,  and  in  his  unreserved  consecration  of 
a  long  life  to  the  service  of  God  and  his  Church,  we 
have  the  earnest  of  a  blissful  immortality."* 

We  can  not  pass  from  the  name  of  Benjamin  T. 
Crouch  without  a  few  additional  thoughts.  He  was 
a  great  man,  and  reached  the  proud  eminence  on  which 
he  stood  by  the  purity  of  his  character,  added  to  a 
good  native  intellect  and  untiring  industry.  Enter- 
ing upon  the  work  of  the  ministry  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  even  the  rudiments  of  education,  he  soon  took 
rank  with  the  master-spirits  of  the  Church.  Although 
the  greater  portion  of  his  life  was  spent  on  extensive 
districts,  furnishing  him  but  few  facilities  for  study, 
he  became  the  most  profound  theologian  in  the  West. 

*  General  Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
vol.  ii,  p.  5. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH. 

As  an  able  defender  of  the  Church  he  had  no  peer  in 
the  conference,  and  in  every  community  in  which  he 
lived  and  labored  he  left  an  impression  for  good.  En- 
joying the  fullest  confidence  of  his  brethren  in  the 
ministry,  they  awarded  him  the  highest  honors  within 
their  gift.  He  was  a  member  of  every  General  Con- 
ference from  1828,  with  the  exception  of  a  single  ses- 
sion, and  also  a  member  of  the  Convention  that  met 
in  Louisville  in  1845.  Without  the  advantage  of  ed- 
ucation, he  labored  more  intensely  in  behalf  of  the 
educational  interests  of  the  Church  in  Kentucky  than 
any  other  man. 

His  death  was  sudden.  The  pain  of  dying  lasted 
only  for  a  moment.  He  had  suffered  all  his  life,  and 
Heaven  kindly  granted  him  exemption  from  suffer- 
ing now. 

In  1845  George  C.  Light,  of  whom  Mr.  Kavan- 
augh  had  often  taken  counsel,  was  transferred  to  the 
Missouri  Conference.  His  name  appears  in  the  Min- 
utes as  early  as  1805.  He  was  born  in  Westmoreland 
County,  Virginia,  February  28,  1785.  In  1791  his 
father  removed  from  Virginia  to  Kentucky,  and  set- 
tled in  Maysville — then  called  Limestone — where  he 
resided  until  January,  1799.  The  family  then  removed 
to  Clermont  County,  Ohio.  His  educational  advan- 
tages were  confined  to  the  period  of  his  residence  in 
Maysville. 

When  George  was  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his 
age  his  father  made  a  profession  of  religion,  and  joined 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  His  mother  had 
been  brought  up  a  Presbyterian,  and  had  for  several 
years  been  a  member  of  that  communion.  In  the 


310  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Autumn  of  1804,  at  a  meeting  held  in  his  father's 
neighborhood,  he  was  awakened  to  his  condition  as  a 
sinner,  and  at  the  "mourners'  bench"  was  powerfully 
converted. 

Previous  to  his  conversion,  although  a  moral  youth, 
yet  he  was  prominent  in  what  were  styled  innocent  so- 
cial amusements.  Regarding  these  as  repugnant  to  the 
genius  and  spirit  of  the  religion  he  had  professed,  after 
his  conversion  he  at  once  displayed  equal  energy  in 
impressing  upon  the  minds  of  his  young  associates 
"  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus." 
His  gifts  were  extraordinary  in  exhortation  and  prayer, 
while  his  zeal,  rendering  him  prominent  in  both  the 
class  and  prayer  meeting,  attracted  the  notice  of  the 
Church. 

William  Burke  was  the  presiding  elder  on  the  dis- 
trict in  which  Mr.  Light  resided,  and  having  been 
present  at  the  time  of  his  conversion,  had  watched 
with  interest  the  buddings  of  promise  presented  by  his 
zeal  and  his  gifts.  Inviting  him  to  attend  one  of  his 
quarterly-meetings,  he  called  upon  him  to  exhort,  and 
then  to  preach.  Fully  impressed  with  the  belief  that 
it  was  his  duty  to  preach  the  Gospel,  Mr.  Burke  sent 
him  to  the  Muskingtim  and  Kanawha  Circuit,*  to  as- 
sist Jacob  Young,  then  in  charge  of  that  field.  Mr. 
Young  was  in  the  bounds  of  his  circuit,  in  feeble 
health,  when  "  some  person  rapped  at  the  door.  A 
tall  young  man  entered,  dressed  rather  slovenly,  but 
of  commanding  countenance,  noble  eye,  high  forehead, 
and  manly  tread.  He  took  his  seat  by  the  fire.  The 

*  Mr.  Young,  in  his  "  Autobiography,"  calls  it  the  Marietta 
Circuit,  but  we  prefer  to  follow  the  (jt-neral  Minutes. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  311 

man  of  the  house,  who  was  very  inquisitive,  said,  'Are 
you  traveling?'  'Yes,  sir.'  '  Where  are  you  from?' 
'  Clermont  County,  Ohio.'  '  Where  are  you  going  to?' 
'Marietta.'  'What  is  your  business?'  'I  am  hunt- 
ing for  a  Methodist  preacher,  by  the  name  of  Jacob 
Young.'  '  Well,  here  he  is,  at  the  table/  I  asked 
him  his  business  with  me.  He  replied,  '  I  am  come 
to  help  you  preach.  I  am  sent  here  by  the  Rev.  Will- 
iam Burke,  presiding  elder.'  I  inquired  his  name. 
'  George  C.  Light.' "  * 

Mr.  Light  remained  on  this  circuit  until  October, 
when  he  was  adpaitted  on  trial  in  the  Western  Con- 
ference. He  spent  only  three  years  as  an  itinerant, 
when  he  married;  the  first  two  of  which  were  on 
Clinch  Circuit,  in  the  Western,  and  the  third  year  on 
the  New  River  Circuit,  in  the  Baltimore  Conference. 

To  marry  a  wife  at  that  early  period  was  almost 
equivalent  to  a  location.  The  heroic  Burke  and  the 
zealous  Page,  with  their  wives,  had,  even  at  an  ear- 
lier day,  withstood  the  tide,  and,  amid  the  sacrifices 
and  sufferings  incident  to  the  itinerancy,  continued  in 
the  work;  but  few  men,  however,  could  do  so.  At 
the  conference  of  1808  Mr.  Light  located. 

Methodism  has  everywhere  taught  the  doctrines 
of  the  agency  of  the  Spirit  in  the  salvation  of  the 
sinner,  and  of  a  divine  call  to  the  Christian  ministry. 
It  is  true  that  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  thus  divinely 
called,  may  sometimes  be  compelled,  by  his  surround- 
ings, to  retire  for  awhile  from  the  active  duties  of  the 
pastorate,  and  in  some  instances  he  may  never  be  able 
to  assume  this  relation.  There  are  men  whose  duty 

*  "  Autobiography  of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Young,"  p.  154. 


312  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

it  is  to  preach  the  Gospel,  but  who  are  not  required 
to  be  pastors.  We  think,  however,  that  no  man  can 
be  contented  and  happy  whose  obvious  duty  it  is  to 
devote  himself  exclusively  to  this  sacred  work  and  who 
declines  the  responsibility.  Other  paths,  it  is  true, 
may  lead  to  ease,  to  fame,  to  fortune;  he  may  engage 
in  other  pursuits  more  congenial  to  his  selfish  nature ; 
prosperity  might  mark  his  career;  yet  he  is  not  satis- 
fied. The  voice  of  duty  calls  him  into  another  field, 
and  until  he  obeys  its  summons  he  can  not  be  con- 
tented. The  itinerant  ministry,  with  its  meager  sup- 
port, its  abundant  labors,  its  privatipns,  its  sacrifices, 
its  responsibilities,  is  dearer  to  the  heart  of  the  man 
whom  God  has  honored  by  putting  him  into  the  holy 
office  than  all  the  trappings  of  wealth,  the  ease  of 
fortune,  or  the  breath  of  fame.  But  few  men  have 
ever  been  satisfied  in  a  local  sphere  who  had  been 
itinerant  preachers,  and  but  few  instances  have  oc- 
curred where,  from  any  circumstances,  they  had  been 
compelled  to  ask  for  a  location,  that  they  did  not — if 
they  maintained  their  piety — re-enter  the  field  if  pos- 
sible to  do  so. 

In  1821  we  find  the  name  of  George  C.  Light  on 
the  roll  of  the  Kentucky  Conference.  In  the  years 
that  had  intervened  since  we  last  met  him,  he  had 
maintained  his  Christian  integrity  and  been  useful  as 
a  local  preacher. 

His  first  appointment  in  the  Kentucky  Conference 
was  to  the  Limestone  Circuit,  with  Peter  Akers  and 
Hezekiah  Holland  for  his  colleagues.  We  next  follow 
him  to  the  Lexington  Station,  where  he  remains  for 
two  years.  His  next  appointment  is  as  "Conference 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  313 

Missionary."  We  afterward  find  him  at  Louisville, 
Shelbyville,  and  Brick  Chapel,  Frankfort,  and  then 
again  at  Shelbyville,  and  at  Lexington.  At  a  later 
period  he  was  appointed  agent  for  the  American  Col- 
onization Society,  which  position  he  filled  for  two 
years.  In  1833  he  was  stationed  in  Maysville.  In 
1834  he  wras  transferred  to  the  Missouri  Conference 
and  appointed  to  the  Palmyra  Circuit.  He  remained 
in  Missouri  until  1841,  when  he  returned  to  Kentucky 
and  was  again  stationed  in  Louisville.  From  this 
period  until  the  Autumn  of  1845  his  name  stands  on 
the  Minutes  of  the  Kentucky  Conference  in  connec- 
tion with  the  most  important  appointments  in  the 
State.  In  1845  he  was  again  transferred  to  the  Mis- 
souri Conference  and  stationed  at  Booneville.  Con- 
tinuing in  Missouri,  he  filled  the  Palmyra  District, 
the  Hydesburg  Circuit,  and  the  Hannibal  Satioh. 

The  feeble  health  of  Mrs.  Light,  together  with  a 
rheumatic  affection  from  which  he  was  suffering,  in- 
duced him,  in  the  Autumn  of  1849,  to  seek  a  milder 
climate.  The  Mississippi  Conference  for  that  year 
convened  in  Natchez.  To  that  conference  he  was 
transferred  and  continued  a  member  until  he  closed 
his  pilgrimage.  In  the  Mississippi  Conference  we  find 
him  on  the  effective  roll  until  1859,  filling  the  several 
stations  assigned  him  with  marked  acceptability  and 
usefulness. 

He  died  suddenly  in  Vicksburg,  February  28, 
1860. 

George  C.  Light  entered  the  ministry  at  a  period 
when  sacrifice  and  toil  and  privation  were  the  heritage 
of  the  itinerant  preacher.  When  he  first  made  his 

27 


314  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

appearance  in  Kentucky  as  a  member  of  the  confer- 
ence, in  1821,  he  was  in  the  prime  of  his  manhood, 
and  in  the  full  strength  of  his  intellect.  Possessing 
talents  of  a  high  order,  with  scarcely  a  rival  in  the 
pulpit  in  the  State,  his  ministry  was  sought  for  in  all 
the  principal  towns  and  cities  of  the  commonwealth. 
Whether  as  the  fearless  defender  of  the  doctrines  held 
by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  or  as  the  oppo- 
nent of  "strange  doctrines,"  his  arguments  were  not 
only  commanding  but  irresistible.  By  nature  an  ora- 
tor, and  brought  up  amid  the  rugged  scenes  of  West- 
ern life,  there  was  a  boldness  amid  his  strokes  of 
eloquence  that  invested  his  sermons  with  a  beauty  and 
power  that  has  seldom  been  equaled.  Success  attended 
his  ministry  wherever  he  labored.  Whether  as  the 
colleague  of  Jacob  Young,  on  the  Marietta  Circuit,  or 
laboring  in  East  Tennessee,  many  were  added  to  the 
Church  through  his  instrumentality.  Following  him 
through  Kentucky,  in  all  the  most  populous  and  influ- 
ential towns  in  the  State,  revivals  of  religion  crowned 
his  labors.  .  In  exhortation,  with  scarcely  a  peer 
among  his  brethren,  his  word  enforced  with  an  energy 
and  a  pathos  that  told  the  sincerity  of  his  great  heart, 
he  was  eminently  successful  in  winning  souls  to  Christ. 
On  camp-meeting  occasions,  where  hundreds  would 
meet  to  worship  God,  his  very  name  Avas  a  tower  of 
strength.  In  Missouri  and  Mississippi,  too,  many 
were  the  seals  to  his  ministry.  The  last  two  years  he 
ever  spent  as  an  effective  preacher  "were  very  pros- 
perous, and  many  were  added  to  the  Church." 
;-  With  very  few  of  the  old  preachers  have  we  ever 

enjoyed  a  more  intimate  acquaintance  than  with  Mr. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  315 

Light.  We  remember  well  when  he  was  stationed, 
in  1828,  at  Shelbyville  and  Brick  Chapel.  Though 
only  nine  years  of  age,  we  recollect  the  energy  and 
zeal  with  which  he  preached.  His  last  year  in  Ken- 
tucky was  in  the  Maysville  Station.  Our  field  of 
labor  was  on  an  adjoining  circuit.  The  last  sermon 
we  ever  heard  him  preach  was  at  Washington,  Ken- 
tucky, from  the  text,  "Ye  are  of  more  value  than 
many  sparrows." 

It  is  often  impossible  to  distinguish  between  the 
results  of  the  ministry  of  a  presiding  elder  and  the 
preachers  associated  with  him  in  his  charge.  The 
Lexington  District  was  supplied  with  pulpit  talent 
equal  to  any  in  the  conference,  men  distinguished  no 
less  for  their  zeal  and  success  in  winning  souls  to 
Christ  than  for  their  influence  and  superior  endow- 
ments. Brush,  Buckner,  Bruce,  Bascom,  McCown, 
Anderson,  Stamper,  and  Ralston  are  names  of  which 
the  Church  will  always  make  honorable  mention. 
The  association  that  always  exists  between  a  presid- 
ing elder  and  the  preachers  of  his  district  must  be 
intimate.  In  an  eminent  degree,  this  was  true  of  the 
presiding  elder  and  the  preachers  of  the  Lexington 
District. 

The  extreme  modesty  of  Mr.  Kavauaugh  had 
never  allowed  him  to  place  upon  his  talents  the  high 
estimate  accorded  by  his  brethren,  always  regarding 
himself  as  overestimated;  yet,  like  a  flame  of  fire,  he 
j Kissed  through  this  beautiful  section  of  Kentucky, 
dispensing  the  word  of  life  to  thousands.  His  quar- 
terly-meetings were  occasions  of  the  deepest  interest, 
and  were  attended  by  hundreds  unaccustomed  to  wor- 


316  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ship  at  a  Methodist  altar.  The  most  influential  gen- 
tlemen in  the  State  sought  his  ministry  and  his 
companionship,  and  were  among  his  warm  personal 
friends.  Just  at  this  period  Henry  Clay  had  retired 
from  public  life,  and  was  enjoying  rest  amid  the  se- 
questered shades  of  Ashland.  Between  him  and  Mr. 
Kavauaugh  the  closest  social  relations  existed,  while 
the  distinguished  Robert  Wickliffe  was  his  admirer 
and  friend.  Each  of  these  gentlemen  waited  upon 
his  ministry  whenever  opportunity  occurred,  exchang- 
ing with  him  at  the  same  time  the  courtesies  of  so- 
cial life. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  the  Minutes  show  a  large 
decrease  in  the  membership  in  the  district.  This, 
however,  may  be  accounted  for,  not  by  any  actual 
falling  off,  but  by  the  transfer  of  several  charges  from 
this  to  other  districts. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  present  at  the  General  Con- 
ference in  Petersburg,  where,  both  as  a  member  of 
that  body  and  in  the  pulpit,  he  met  the  highest  ex- 
pectations of  his  friends.  At  this  General  Conference 
the  Kentucky  Conference  was  divided,  forming  the 
Kentucky  and  Louisville  Conferences. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1846  he  was  returned  to  the 
Lexington  District,  where,  with  unabated  popularity 
and  success,  he  continued  to  prosecute  his  labors,  ex- 
traordinary revivals  of  religion  blessing  almost  every 
charge. 

During  the  two  years  of  his  presiding  eldership 
he  but  seldom  heard  a  sermon  preached  by  any  one 
except  himself.  He  generally  commenced  his  quar- 
terly-meetings on  Friday  evening,  and  preached  the 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  317 

opening  sermon,  and  then  preached,  morning  and 
evening,  as  long  as  the  meeting  continued.  It  was 
not  because  he  did  not  wish  to  hear  his  brethren; 
but  he  loved  to  preach,  and  in  deference  to  the  wishes 
of  the  people,  who  desired  to  listen  to  no  other  preacher 
while  he  was  present,  and  to  the  persuasions  of  the 
preachers  themselves,  he  yielded  to  their  solicitations. 

In  1847  he  was  changed  from  the  Lexington  Dis- 
trict to  the  city  of  Lexington.  George  W.  Brush 
had  been  for  two  years  the  pastor,  and,  by  the  law 
of  the  Church,  could  remain  no  longer.  The  Church, 
too,  in  that  city,  if  compelled  to  give  up  Mr.  Kav- 
anaugh  as  their  presiding  elder,  requested  his  ap- 
pointment to  the  station.  No  appointment  could  have, 
been  more  opportune.  Transylvania  University,  since 
1842,  had  been  under  the  control  of  the  Methodist 
Church ;  and  to  its  halls  of  learning  hundreds  of 
young  men,  not  only  from  Kentucky,  but  from  the 
Southern  States,  were  resorting,  to  receive  the  last 
polish  that  a  thorough  education  could  give  them. 
Many  of  them  were  from  Methodist  homes,  and,  while 
they  would  naturally  worship  at  the  Methodist  Church, 
yet  they  would  be  inclined  to  seek  the  best  preachers; 
hence  the  importance  of  filling  the  .Methodist  pulpit 
in  Lexington  with  men  of  marked  ability.  While 
other  Churches  in  that  refined  city  might  boast  of 
the  superior  endowments  of  their  clergymen,  and 
justly  so,  no  one  of  them  excelled,  or  even  compared 
with,  Mr.  Kavanaugh. 

The  year  was  one  of  marked  prosperity.  At  no 
period  of  his  ministry,  and  in  no  charge  that  he  had 
filled,  had  his  labors  been  more  signally  blessed. 


318  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Early  after  the  session  of  the  conference,  a  revival  broke 
out  in  his  Church,  that  swept  like  a  blaze  through  the 
city,  reaching  the  homes  and  hearts  of  the  people. 
Nor  was  this  work  of  grace  confined  to  the  white 
population,  but,  extending  to  the  people  of  color, 
more  than  a  hundred  of  them  drank  from  the  river 
of  the  water  of  life,  and  were  healed.  If  before,  the 
community  in  Lexington  admired  this  gifted  son  of 
Kentucky,  their  admiration  now  greatly  increased. 
His  praise  was  on  every  lip,  his  name  in  every  home. 

He  felt  greatly  grieved  at  the-  withdrawal,  this 
year,  of  B.  H.  McCown  from  the  conference. 

On  the  district,  he  was  succeeded  by  Thomas  N. 
Ralston.  Mr.  Ralston  was  born  in  Bourbon  County, 
Ky.,  March  21,  1806.  In  November,  1826,  he  pro- 
fessed religion,  and  in  May,  1827,  at  Greer's  Creek 
Church,  in  Woodford  County,  Ky.,  he  was  received 
into  the  Church  by  William  Adams,  and  by  the  same 
preacher  was  licensed  to  preach,  the  following  August, 
at  a  district  conference  in  Lexington,  Ky.  In  1827 
Mr.  Ralston  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Kentucky 
Conference,  and  was  appointed  to  the  Mount  Sterling 
Circuit,  with  Milton  Jamieson  in  charge.  In  1828  he 
was  appointed  to  the  Danville  Circuit,  with  William 
Atherton.  In  1829  he  located,  in  consequence  of 
feeble  health,  after  having  been  admitted  into  full 
connection.  He  remained  local  four  years,  a  portion 
of  the  time  sustaining  the  relation  of  principal  to  the 
Bethel  Academy,  in  Nicholasville,  yet  preaching  as 
often  as  his  health  would  permit. 

In  the  mean  time  he  removed  to  Illinois,  where, 
in  1833,  he  re-entered  the  itinerant  ranks  in  the 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  31 9 

Illinois  Conference,  and  was  appointed  to  the  Rush- 
ville  Circuit,  having  for  has  colleague  the  young,  elo- 
quent, and  sainted  Peter  Bowen.  In  the  Spring  of 
1834  Hush  ville  was  detached  from  the  circuit  and 
formed  into  a  station,  to  which  Mr.  Ralston  was  re- 
turned in  the  Autumn.  In  1835  he  was  transferred 
to  the  Kentucky  Conference,  and  appointed  to  the 
"Versailles  Circuit,  having  for  his  colleague  George  S. 
Savage.  The  next  year  we  find  him  in  Frankfort. 
Thence  we  follow  him  to  Maysville,  where  he  remained 
two  years.  From  Maysville  he  was  sent  to  the  city 
of  Louisville,  and  stationed  at  Fourth  Street,  the  old- 
est, and  at  that  time  the  largest,  Church  in  the  city. 
In  1840  he  was  appointed  agent  for  Augusta  College, 
and  in  1841  his  field  of  labor  was  the  Shelbyville 
Station,  to  which  he  was  returned  in  1842.  In  1843 
he  was  placed  on  the  list  of  the  superannuated,  but 
took  charge  of  the  Lexington  Female  High  School. 

From  the  time  that  Thomas  N.  Ralston  entered 
the  itinerant  ranks  he  gave  promise  of  great  useful- 
ness to  the  Church.  Soundly  converted,  and  divinely 
called  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  he  entered  upon 
the  discharge  of  his  high  and  holy  office  with  com- 
mendable zeal,  and  prosecuted  its  duties  with  energy 
and  success.  Endowed  with  an  intellect  of  a  high 
order,  well  improved  by  a  liberal  education  and  close 
study,  as  a  preacher  he  attracted  attention,  while  in 
the  performance  of  his  pastoral  work  he  greatly  en- 
deared himself  to  the  people  he  served. 

In  the  Mount  Sterling  Circuit,  where  he  won  his 
earliest  trophies,  revivals,  like  a  flaming  fire,  spread 
over  the  country,  and  more  than  six  hundred  persons 


320  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

were  added  to  the  Church.  It  is  true  the  zealous 
Milton  Jamieson  was  in  charge,  and  John  Ray,  Henry 
McDaniel,  John  Craig,  William  C.  Stribling,  John 
Sinclair,  and  Israel  Lewis  in  the  ministry,  and  in  'the 
laity  Caleb  Caps,  Isaac  Redman,  and  Frank  Owen, 
contributed  their  influence  to  the  advancement  and 
progress  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Redeemer;  yet  under 
the  ministry  of  the  young  itinerant  hundreds  were 
brought  to  Christ.  It  Avas  on  this  circuit,  and  during 
this  year,  that  the  good  Joseph  Sewell,  one  of  the 
most  useful  local  preachers  in  Kentucky,  was  licensed 
to  preach.  He  had  just  entered  the  Church,  and  was 
impressed  with  the  conviction  that  he  ought  to  per- 
suade sinners  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  Without  ed- 
ucation, he  felt  unwilling  to  enter  on  a  work  so 
responsible,  until  his  agony  became  so  intense  that  it 
was  almost  intolerable.  Invited  by  Mr.  Ralston,  he 
accompanied  him  around  the  circuit.  His  exhorta- 
tions were  overpowering.  Congregations  were  melted 
into  tenderness  under  his  warm  appeals  and  earnest 
prayers. 

On  the  Danville  Circuit  the  times  were  prosper- 
ous. At  a  camp-meeting  near  Perryville  many  were 
brought  to  Christ.  William  Hoi  man  was  stationed 
in  Danville  and  Harrodsburg,  and  the  gifted  Henry 
S.  Duke  in  Lancaster  and  Stanford,  from  whom  he 
received  valuable  aid.  The  zealous  Dr.  Fleece,  of 
Danville — a  host  in  a  revival — and  the  good  Benja- 
min Durham  and  Carlin  Tadlock,  in  the  country, 
held  up  his  hands  while  he  lifted  "  o'er  the  ranks  the 
prophet's  rod." 

While  traveling   on  the  Danville  Circuit,  on  one 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  321 

occasion  he  preached  on  the  possibility  of  apostasy. 
A  lady,  who  was  a  member  of  a  sister  Church,  be- 
came offended  at  the  sermon,  and,  passing  from  the 
church  in  company  with  another  lady  at  whose  house 
the  young  preacher  was  stopping,  she  was  so  excited 
that,  while  standing  on  a  log  by  the  side  of  her  horse, 
preparatory  to  mounting  him,  just  as  she  had  repeated 
in  a  raised  voice  the  words,  "He  says  a  Christian 
may  fall  and  be  lost ;  he  preached  a  falsehood,  for  I 
know  a  Christian  can  not  fall,"  she  made  a  spring 
for  the  saddle,  but  did  so  with  such  force  that  she 
fell  to  the  ground  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  horse — 
not  hurt,  however.  "  Now,"  said  the  Methodist  lady, 
"that  is  to  pay  you  for  getting  angry.  I  hope  you 
will  admit  hereafter  that  a  Christian  may  fall."  The 
offended  woman  afterward  became  a  Methodist,  and 
with  great  humor  often  related  the  incident. 

The  excessive  labors  of  two  years  had  so  impaired 
the  health  of  Mr.  Ralston  that  he  was  no  longer  able 
to  perform  the  duties  of  an  itinerant,  and  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  brethren  sought  for  rest  in  a  local  sphere. 
During  the  four  years  in  which  he  was  a  local  preacher^ 
he  preached  as  often  as  his  feeble  health  would  permit, 
and  often  beyond  his  strength. 

Entering  the  itinerant  field  in  Illinois,  in  1833,  he 
had  lost  none  of  the  zeal  which  had  characterized  his 
early  ministry,  but  with  untiring  energy  continued  to 
persuade  men  to  turn  to  God.  In  the  town  of  Rush- 
ville  a  meeting,  which  was  protracted  through  more 
than  two  months,  resulted  in  the  conversion  of  one 
hundred  persons. 

On  his  return  to  Kentucky  success  still  crowned 


322  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

his  labors.  On  the  Versailles  Circuit  he  enjoyed  a 
year  of  prosperity;  in  Frankfort  he  had  seals  to  his 
ministry,  and  in  Maysville  many  were  converted  and 
added  to  the  Church. 

He  was  appointed  to  Louisville  in  1839,  immedi- 
ately after  the  most  extraordinary  revival  that  had 
ever  occured  in  that  city.  John  Newland  Maffitt  had 
been  eminently  successful.  A  vast  amount  of  work 
had  necessarily  to  be  performed  in  taking  care  of 
those  who  had  entered  the  communion  of  the  Church, 
and  most  faithfully  did  Mr.  Ralston  address  himself 
to  the  task. 

As  agent  for  Augusta  College  he  traveled  exten- 
sively, and  labored  faithfully  to  promote  the  interest 
confided  to  his  care. 

In  Shelbyville  a  gracious  revival  blessed  the 
Church.  Worn  down  by  excessive  labor,  he  yields 
to  his  wasting  strength,  and  asks  at  the  hands  of  his 
brethren  a  superannuated  relation. 

In  1844,  and  the  year  following,  he  was  in  charge 
of  the  Female  High-school  in  Lexington,  and  in  1846 
was  the  colleague  of  John  C.  Harrison,  at  Harrods- 
burg  and  Danville,  and  then  for  three  years  was  pre- 
siding elder  on  Lexington  District. 

In  1850  he  was  editor  of  the  Methodist  Monthly, 
and  produced  in  its  pages  some  of  the  finest  sketches 
of  pioneer  preachers  in  Kentucky  ever  written.  In 
1851  we  find  him  at  Oxford,  and  the  two  years  fol- 
lowing at  Winchester  and  Ebeuezer.  In  1854  he  was 
appointed  to  Harrodsburg  District,  and  at  the  follow- 
ing conference,  his  health  having  become  impaired, 
he  asked  for  a  supernumerary  relation.  After  one 


-BISHOP  KAVANAUGIL  323 

year's  rest,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Covington  Dis- 
trict, but  finding  his  strength  unequal  to  the  duties  of 
the  office  of  presiding  elder,  he  retired  at  the  close 
of  the  year,  and  was  then  sent  to  Newport. 

From  the  time  he  entered  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence, in  1827,  Mr.  Ralston  had  been  distinguished 
for  the  purity  of  his  life,  for  his  fervent  zeal,  and  for 
the  great  success  that  attended  his  labors.  Whether 
on  circuits,  in  stations,  or  as  leader  of  the  hosts  on 
districts,  he  was  faithful  to  his  trust,  and  enjoyed  the 
confidence  of  his  brethren,  both  in  the  ministry  and 
laity,  as  an  able  and  faithful  minister  of  Jesus  Christ. 

In  1858  he  withdrew  from  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  South,  and  entered  the  communion  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  where  he  remained  for 
two  years  as  rector  of  the  Church  in  Covington, 
Kentucky. 

During  the  war  Mr.  Ralston  was  all  the  time  in 
membership  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
having  previously  gone  to  Illinois.  He  filled  the 
charge  of  Centralia  Station,  Illinois  Conference,  one 
year.  In  South-east  Indiana  Conference  he  was  two 
years  stationed  in  Madison,  Indiana,  and  one  year  in 
Brookville.  After  the  close  of  the  war,  being  in 
feeble  health,  he  received,  at  his  own  request,  a  su- 
perannuated relation,  and  immediately  returned  to 
Kentucky. 

A  vacancy  in  the  presiding  eldership  having  oc- 
curred on  the  Shelbyville  District,  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
at  once  appointed  him  to  it.  He  only  had  time  to 
make  one  round  on  the  district  before  the  meeting  of 
the  conference  of  1866,  at  which  he  was  re-admitted 


324  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

into  the  Kentucky  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South. 

We  were  present  at  the  time  his  name  was  pre- 
sented, and  could  not  but  feel  a  pleasure  at  the  cor- 
dial reception  given  to  this  distinguished  preacher 
on  his  return  to  his  first  love.  Many  members  of 
the  body  wept,  while  all  received  him  with  open  arms 
and  warm  hearts. 

In  the  transitions  that  Mr.  Ralston  had  made  there 
was  no  vacillation  or  change  of  mind  in  regard  to 
faith  or  views  of  Church  order.  He  preached  and 
maintained  everywhere  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  as 
taught  by  Wesley,  Fletcher,  and  Watson. 

Upon  his  return  to  the  conference  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Covington  District,  from  which  he  was 
transferred  the  year  following  to  the  Maysville  Dis- 
trict, where  he  remained  two  years.  Too  feeble  to 
take  an  appointment  in  1869,  he  was  placed  on  the 
supernumerary  list;  but  at  the  conference  of  1870 
returned  to  test  his  strength  again  in  the  effective 
ranks.  He  was  sent  to  the  Shelbyville  District,  from 
which,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  he  was  transferred  to 
the  Covington  District,  from  which  feeble  health  com- 
pelled him  to  retire  in  1873.  At  the  conference  of 
that  year  he  was  appointed  to  Mt.  Pleasant,  and  pro- 
fessor of  Biblical  literature  in  the  Kentucky  Weslcyan 
University,  to  which  position  he  was  returned  in  1874. 
From  that  time  to  1879  he  was  professor  in  Kentucky 
Wesleyan  University,  then  at  Mt.  Pleasant  and  Berry 
Chapel  in  1879,  and  at  Highland  in  1880.  He  was 
then  retired  to  the  supernumerary  list,  where  he  still 
remains. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  325 

We  first  saw  and  heard  Mr.  Ralston  in  1835,  at 
which  time  the  Kentucky  Annual  Conference  met  in 
Shelbyville.  Learning  that  a  scholarly  and  gifted 
young  preacher  would  preach  at  the  Methodist 
Church,  we  went  early  that  we  might  not  be  disap- 
pointed in  procuring  a  seat.  His  text  was,  "  Return 
unto  thy  rest,  O  my  soul,  for  the  Lord  hath  dealt 
bountifully  with  thee."  The  sermon  was  a  master- 
piece of  composition,  and  produced  a  wonderful  effect. 
We  have  since  often  listened  with  thrilling  interest  to 
the  same  distinguished  divine;  but  on  no  occasion 
have  we  heard  him  excel  the  sermon  he  preached  at 
that  time. 

The  soul — its  immortality,  and  its  capacity  for  suf- 
fering or  for  bliss;  a  wanderer  from  God,  its  only 
source  of  rest ;  the  exhortation  to  return,  and  the  rich 
provision  made  through  the  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ 
for  its  happiness  here  and  hereafter — were  the  themes 
on  which  the  preacher  dwelt.  In  a  whisper  soft  as 
the  evening  zephyr  he  portrayed  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
for  the  sins  of  mankind,  and  the  rich  inheritance  pro- 
vided for  the  world  by  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God. 
He  dipped  his  pencil  in  living  light  to  paint  the  ag- 
onies that  Jesus  bore,  and  to  unfold  the  glittering 
splendors  of  the  heavenly  state  in  which  the  soul  should 
bask  forever  and  ever.  Then,  rising  to  the  loftiest 
heights  of  oratory,  he  pointed  to  the  realms  of  night — 
unending  night — where  the  soul,  invested*with  immor- 
tality, should  roam  amid  darkness  and  gloom  through 
eternal  ages — lost,  lost,  forever  lost! 

From  our  entrance  into  the  conference  in  1837  we 
have  known  Dr.  Ralston  intimately,  and  take  pleasure 


326  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

in  bearing  testimony  to  his  great  ability  and  earnest 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 

He  was  stationed  in  Shelbyville  in  1842,  and  when 
on  a  visit  to  that  village,  where  we  had  been  brought 
up,  we  spent  for  several  weeks  a  portion  of  each  day 
in  his  society.  It  was  during  this  time  that  we  learned 
to  love  him  and  to  appreciate  his  great  worth.  He 
was  then  writing  that  remarkable  book,  "  Elements 
of  Divinity,"  containing  a  body  of  theology  which  is 
unsurpassed,  if  equaled,  outside  the  pages  of  the  Bible, 
and  which  has  given  to  the  illustrious  author  an  im- 
mortality of  fame. 

He  was  elected  to  the  General  Conference  of  1840, 
and  has  been  a  member  of  several  General  Conferences 
since,  among  them  that  held  in  Columbus,  Georgia,  in 
1854,  where  he  made  the  opening  speech  on  the  loca- 
tion of  the  Publishing  House,  advocating  Louisville 
as  the  proper  place. 

If  Dr.  Ralston  was  Mr.  Kavanaugh's  presiding 
elder,  William  H.  Anderson  was  his  colleague  this 
year  in  Lexington. 

William  H.  Anderson  was  born  in  Wilmington, 
North  Carolina,  September  17,  1817.  In  1827  his 
father  removed  from  Wilmington  to  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia. While  a  student  at  the  Wesleyan  University, 
in  Middletown,  Connecticut,  in  the  Autumn  of  1833, 
he  was  happily  converted  to  God.  In  1835  his  father 
removed  from  Richmond,  Virginia,  to  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky; and  in  1837,  at  the  close  of  his  classical  course 
in  the  Wesleyan  University,  William  H.  Anderson  fol- 
lowed his  father  to  the  West.  Dedicated  to  God  in 
baptism  in  infancy,  and  brought  up  in  a  pious  home, 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  327 

we  are  not  surprised  that  iu  the  dewy  mom  of  life  he 
gave  his  heart  to  God.  Fully  impressed  with  the  con- 
viction that  he  ought  to  preach  the  Gospel,  in  the 
Autumn  of  1838  he  received  license  from  Benjamin 
T.  Crouch,  and  entered  the  conference  the  same  Au- 
tumn. His  first  appointment  was  to  the  Newcastle 
Circuit,  as  the  colleague  of  the  zealous  James  D.  Hol- 
ding. His  second  year  he  was  sent  to  La  Grange,  with 
John  Beatty.  In  1840  he  was  appointed  to  Bowling 
Green,  where  we  still  find  him  in  1841.  In  1842  he 
was  appointed  to  the  city  of  Frankfort,  as  pastor  of 
the  Church  and  as  agent  for  the  Transylvania  Uni- 
versity. Before  the  close  of  the  year  he  was  called 
away  from  the  pastoral  work,  where  'his  ministry  had 
been  so  greatly  blessed,  to  fill  the  chair  of  English 
literature  in  the  Transylvania  University,  to  which  he 
was  officially  appointed  in  1843. 

No  young  man  who  had  entered  the  itinerant  ranks 
in  Kentucky  for  many  years  had  given  greater  prom- 
ise of  usefulness  than  did  William  H.  Anderson.  De- 
scended from  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  influential 
families,  his  education  thorough,  his  piety  uniform  and 
consistent,  his  zeal  uncompromising,  his  address  win- 
ning, courteous  in  his  manners,  devoted  to  the  Church, 
his  style  in  the  pulpit  popular  and  attractive,  and  with 
a  voice  soft  and  sweet,  his  entrance  into  the  ministry 
was  looked  to  with  more  than  ordinary  interest.  On 
the  Newcastle  Circuit,  his  first  field  of  labor,  under 
his  burning  words  and  warm  appeals  many  hearts  were 
touched,  and  fell  in  love  with  the  Savior.  Wherever 
he  preached  crowds  hung  in  breathless  silence  on  his 
lips,  and  under  his  instrumentality  hundreds  were 


328  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

brought  to  Christ.  On  the  La  Grange  Circuit  the 
same  success  distinguished  his  labors,  and  many  were 
the  seals  to  his  ministry.  Before  his  appointment  to 
the  Bowling  Green  Station  he  had  taken  rank  with 
the  first  preachers  in  the  State.  In  that  charge  he 
continued  to  be  eminently  useful  in  winning  souls  to 
Christ.  In  the  city  of  Frankfort,  as  a  preacher,  he 
occupied  a  commanding  eminence,  which  he  continued 
to  maintain  for  three  years  amid  the  classic  halls  of 
Transylvania  with  honor  to  himself  and  with  satis- 
faction to  the  curators  and  students.  In  1846  he  was 
appointed  with  W.  W.  Hibben  to  Lexington,  and  in 

1847  with  H.  H.  Kavanaugh  to  the  same  city.     In 

1848  he  was   sent   to  Versailles   and   Nicholasville, 
where  he  remained  two  years,  and  in  1850  was  agent 
for  the  American  Bible  Society.     He  was  transferred 
to  the  Louisville  Conference  in  1851  and  appointed 
to  Brook  Street  Church   in  the  city  of  Louisville, 
to  which  he  was  returned  the  following  year.     His 
next  appointment  was  Third  Street  Church  in  the  same 
city,  which  he  served  one  year,  when  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Missouri  Conference,  where  he  remained  un- 
til 1863,  spending  six  years  as  president  of  St.  Charles 
College,  and  the  remainder  of  the  time  as  president 
of  Central  College.     Upon  the  urgent  request  of  the 
members  of  the  Brook  Street  Church  in  Louisville, 
in  1863,  he  was  returned  to  the  Louisville  Conference, 
and  stationed  at  that  Church  for  two  years.     He  was 
then  sent  to  Chestnut  Street,  where  he  remained  three 
years,  when  he  was  stationed  in  Henderson. 

In  1869  he  was  transferred  to  the  Tennessee  Con- 
ference, and  appointed  president  of  Florence  Wesley  an 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  329 

University,  located  at  Florence,  Alabama.  In  1870 
the  North  Alabama  Conference  was  formed,  and  he 
became  a  member  of  that  conference  by  virtue  of  his 
connection  with  the  university,  which  was  located 
within  its  bounds.  In  1871  he  was  transferred  to 
Louisville  Conference,  and  after  serving  Shelby  Street 
in  Louisville  one  year,  he  was  elected  to  the  respon- 
sible office  of  president  of  the  University  of  Public 
Schools  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  in  which  capacity 
he  served  three  years.  In  1875  he  had  charge  of  the 
Seminary  at  Cloverport,  in  connection  with  the  care 
of  the  Church  in  that  place.  From  1876  to  1879  he 
was  the  president  of  Kentucky  Wesleyan  College,  and 
the  two  years  following  of  Brookville  Seminary.  He 
was  then  stationed  for  two  years  in  Nicholasville,  from 
which,  in  1883,  he  was  sent  to  Carlisle,  his  present 
charge. 

In  1850,  when  Dr.  Bascom  was  elected  to  the  epis- 
copal office,  Mr.  Anderson  was  elected  editor  of  the 
Quarterly  Review  as  his  successor,  which  honor  he 
declined. 

Dr.  Anderson  is  a  preacher  of  rare  gifts,  and  we 
have  always  regretted  that  he  was  ever  called  from 
the  pulpit  into  any  institution  of  learning.  There  is 
no  office  in  the  Church  that  he  would  not  have 
adorned ;  nor  do  we  think  there  is  any  that  was  not 
within  his  reach.  Most  richly  endowed  by  nature — 
his  mind  stored  with  the  jeweled  treasures  of  a  thor- 
ough education,  a  courteous  gentleman,  popular  in  his 
manners,  and  an  earnest  Christian — he  is  equal  to  any 
station  in  life.  He  has  been  a  member  of  four  Gen- 
eral Conferences,  and  was  elected  to  the  General  Con- 

28 


330  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

ference  which  was  to  have  met  in  1862.  The  South- 
ern University  and  Wofford  College  each  conferred 
on  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  in  1866,  hon- 
oring themselves  in  honoring  him.  He  was  twice 
married;  the  first  time  on  April  20,  1844,  to  Miss 
Rosa  Hardin  Field,  of  Richmond,  Kentucky,  who  died 
in  April,  1850.  His  second  wife  was  Miss  Helen 
Richardson,  of  Louisville,  Kentucky. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  331 


ix. 


FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 
OF  1848  TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1850. 

OINCE  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  the  war 
O  on  the  border  waged  against  the  Church  South, 
had  been  carried  on  with  great  vigor.  Through  the  un- 
tiring energy  and  devotion  of  the  preachers,  who  occu- 
pied these  perilous  posts,  the  Kentucky  border  had 
chiefly  been  brought  under  the  influence  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church  South,  and  in  any  wise  to  have  re- 
linquished their  hold  would  have  been  suicidal  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  people  of  Kentucky.  We,  how- 
ever, had  no  Church  organ,  through  which  to  state 
the  Southern  side  of  the  question.  It  is  true,  the 
South-western  Christian  Advocate,  published  at  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee,  opened  its  columns  to  the  defense, 
but  it  could  not  meet  the  demands  of  Kentucky 
Methodism,  accustomed,  as  it  was,  to  look  elsewhere 
for  information. 

The  destitution  of  Kentucky,  in  this  regard,  led 
to  the  establishment,  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  of  the 
Methodist  Expositor  and  True  Issue.  Its  editor  was 
Dr.  Samuel  A.  Latta,  one  of  the  most  profound  think- 
ers and  ablest  writers  in  the  Church.  Dr.  Latta  ten- 
dered the  Expositor  to  the  Kentucky  Conference. 
Although  the  conference  did  not  accept  'its  control, 


332  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

yet  they  pledged  to  it  their  support,  and  appointed 
Mr.  Kavanaugh  corresponding  editor. 

It  was  always  great  labor  with  Mr.  Kavanaugh  to 
write,  yet  he  accepted  the  trust  committed  to  him  by 
his  brethren,  and  discharged  the  duties  to  their  en- 
tire satisfaction.  Many  of  the  ablest  articles  on  the 
troubles  that  agitated  the  Church  were  from  his  pen, 
while  his  department  of  the  paper  abounded  in  spark- 
ling wit  and  richest  humor.  In  repartee  he  had  no 
superior  and  scarcely  a  peer. 

In  addition  to  this,  he  was  stationed  at  Soule 
Chapel,  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  as  the  successor  of 
Dr.  Parsons,  who  followed  Dr.  Sehon,  whose  unri- 
valed popularity  in  the  Queen  City  of  the  West  made 
it  no  easy  task  to  follow  him.  It  was  much  less  dif- 
ficult to  hold  a  congregation  in  connection  with  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Covington,  where  a 
large  number  of  the  members  were  engaged  in  busi- 
ness in  Cincinnati,  than  to  hold  in  Cincinnati  a  con- 
gregation under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  where  even  business  might 
be  affected  by  Church  relations. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh,  however,  was  equal  to  the  posi- 
tion in  which  he  was  placed.  He  preached  a  pure 
Gospel,  preaching  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  in  the 
plainest  manner,  ignoring  all  questions  that  did  not 
belong  to  the  pulpit,  setting  forth,  both  by  precept 
and  example,  the  practical  duties  of  Christian  life. 
If  he  did  not  increase  the  membership  while  stationed 
in  Cincinnati,  he  preached  to  large  and  appreciative 
congregations,  and  sowed  good  seed  whose  harvest 
will  be  seen  in  a  coming  eternity. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  333 

The  second  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  would  meet  in  May,  1850, 
in  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  The  delegates  elected  by  the 
Kentucky  Conference  were  H.  B.  Bascom,  B.  T. 
Crouch,  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  T.  N.  Ralston,  W.  H. 
Anderson,  J.  C.  Harrison,  and  G.  W.  Brush.  He 
was  returned  to  Cincinnati  in  1849. 

Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  a  man  of  most  generous  sym- 
pathies and  warmest  friendship.  His  love  for  Burr 
H.  McCown  was  not  exceeded  by  that  of  Jonathan 
for  David.  Although  two  years  had  elapsed  since 
Mr.  McCown  had  withdrawn  from  the  ministry  and 
membership  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  yet  the  wound  in  the  heart  of  his  friend  was 
not  healed. 

"  I  shall  never  be  satisfied,"  we  heard  him  once 
say,  "  until  Burr  H.  McCown  returns  to  the  Method- 
ist Church,  which  I  feel  sure  he  will  do." 

Burr  H.  McCown  was  born  October  29,  1806,  in 
Bardstown,  Kentucky,  and  in  1818  was  converted  to 
God.  In  1824  he  joined  the  Presbyterian  Church ; 
but,  believing  the  doctrines  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  to  accord  more  fully  with  the  teachings 
of  the  Bible,  in  1826  he  joined  the  Methodist  Church, 
under  the  ministry  of  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh.  He 
was  educated  at  St.  Joseph  College,  in  Bardstown, 
and  took  the  highest  honors  of  his  class  in  both  the 
Latin  and  Greek  languages. 

From  the  time  he  became  a  member  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  he  had  expected  to  enter  the  min- 
istry in  that  denomination.  We  are  not  surprised, 
therefore,  to  find  him  in  the  Methodist  ministry.  He 


334  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

was  licensed  to  preach  by  Marcus  Lindsey,  in  1826, 
and  in  1827  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Kentucky 
Conference.  His  first  appointment  was  to  the  Henry 
Circuit,  as  the  colleague  of  William  Atherton.  In 
1828  he  was  appointed,  with  John  James,  to  the  Jef- 
ferson Circuit.  At  the  conference  of  1829  he  was 
stationed  in  Russellville,  and  in  1830  in  Louisville. 
In  1831  he  was  elected  to  a  professorship  in  Augusta 
College,  where  he  continued  until  1842,  when,  with 
Henry  B.  Bascom,  he  removed  to  Lexington,  and 
became  a  professor  in  Transylvania  University. 

He  continued  to  occupy  a  chair  in  the  university 
until  the  conference  of  1846,  when  he  was  left.  "  with- 
out an  appointment  by  consent  of  the  conference  in 
view  of  peculiar  circumstances."  In  1847  he  with- 
drew from  the  connection. 

During  the  four  years  that  Mr.  McCown  was  in 
the  pastoral  work  he  was  useful  and  beloved.  As  a 
preacher  he  took  high  rank  at  an  early  period  in  his 
ministry.  With  a  sweet  and  gentle  disposition,  court- 
eous to  all,  his  address  popular,  and  his  personal  ap- 
pearance commanding,  he  exerted  an  influence  for 
good  that  could  be  claimed  by  but  few  young  men  of 
his  day.  When  we  have  seen  him  in  the  pulpit,  and 
heard  him  preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ, 
we  have  regretted  that  he  was  ever  called  from  the 
pastoral  work,  in  which  he  was  so  happy,  and  where 
he  was  so  useful.  In  the  halls  of  learning,  however, 
he  lost  none  of  the  zeal  that  had  distinguished  him 
as  a  pastor,  and  none  of  the  love  that  had  constrained 
him  to  enter  the  ministry.  As  a  teacher  he  acquired 
an  enviable  reputation,  and  contributed  much  toward 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  335 

the  formation  of  the  character  of  hundreds  of  young 
men  who,  throughout  the  West  and  the  South,  adorn 
the  learned  professions.  • 

Soon  after  his  withdrawal  from  the  Methodist 
Church,  he  entered  the  Presbyterian,  and  after  exer- 
cising the  functions  of  a  pastor  for  a  brief  period,  he 
settled  in  Jefferson  County,  near  Anchorage,  where 
he  established  a  school  of  high  grade,  over  which  he 
presided  with  great  ability  and  success  until  a  few 
years  before  his  death,  preaching  almost  every  Sun- 
day. From  the  time  he  severed  his  connection  with 
the  Church,  in  which  he  had  spent  so  many  happy 
years,  he  was  not  satisfied.  The  harness  in  his  new 
relation  did  not  fit  him.  He  was  an  Arminian  of  the 
Wesleyan  type,  and  could  neither  accept  the  teachings 
nor  preach  the  doctrines  of  the  Westminster  confes- 
sion of  faith. 

In  September,  1874,  he  returned  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  offered  himself  to  the 
Kentucky  Conference,  and  was  readmitted.  The  as- 
sociates, however,  of  his  early  ministry  had  passed 
away,  and  he  seemed  to  be  a  stranger  among  his  breth- 
ren. He  filled  a  few  charges,  and  was  much  beloved  by 
the  members  of  the  conference.  He  lived  until  August 
29,  1881,  when,  at  his  home  near  Anchorage,  Ken- 
tucky, in  great  peace  he  passed  away. 

In  the  Spring  of  1838  a  young  preacher  made  his 
appearance  in  Kentucky  who  was  destined  to  bear  a 
prominent  part  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  and 
to  occupy  a  commanding  eminence  for  more  than  a 
generation. 

John  H.  Linn  was  born  in  Lewisburg,  Virginia, 


336  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

February  22,  1812.  From  his  early  childhood  he  was 
impressed  with  the  importance  of  religion,  and  was 
deeply  convicted  of  his  own  sinful  condition.  Having 
been  taught  the  fear  of  God  from  his  infancy,  it  was 
no  difficult  task  for  him  to  call  upon  the  Lord  and 
plead  for  pardon.  In  the  fourteenth  year  of  his  age 
he  was  happily  converted.  Brought  up  under  Pres- 
byterian influence,  he  was  naturally  inclined  to  join 
that  Church;  but,  for  reasons  satisfactory  to  himself, 
did  not  do  so.  In  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  age  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  some  Methodist  preachers, 
for  whom  he  formed  a  warm  attachment,  and  through 
their  influence  became  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  In  1836  he  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the 
Baltimore  Conference,  and  was  appointed,  with  Fran- 
cis M.  Mills,  to  the  Franklin  Circuit,  with  Norval 
Wilson  as  his  presiding  elder.  In  1837  his  field  of 
labor  was  the  Lexington  Circuit  (with  the  same  pre- 
siding elder)  as  the  colleague  of  George  W.  Humph- 
reys. His  wife  was  Ann  Eliza  Woodyard,  daughter  of 
W.  H.  Woodyard,  of  Kentucky,  a  lady  of  superior  in- 
tellect, of  fervent  piety,  and  uncompromising  devotion 
to  the  Church.  This  influenced  his  transfer  to  Ken- 
tucky in  1838.  The  death  of  the  lamented  Gibbons 
made  a  vacancy  on  the  Georgetown  Circuit,  and  the 
Church  was  so  fortunate  as  to  secure  the  appointment 
of  Mr.  Linn  for  the  remainder  of  the  year. 

He  was  an  excellent  preacher  from  the  time  he 
entered  the  ministry.  When  the  conference  held  its 
session  in  Baltimore,  in  1837,  at  the  close  of  his  first 
year  in  the  itinerant  ministry,  he  was  appointed  to 
preach  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  then  under 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH,  337 

the  pastoral  care  of  Dr.  Backus,  the  successor  of  Dr. 
Nevins.  He  preached  on  Rom.  viii,  38,  39 :  "  For  I 
am  persuaded,  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels, 
nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the-  love  of 
God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  One  who 
was  present  on  the  occasion  tells  us  that  it  was  an 
excellent  sermon,  and  was  so  considered  by  the  highly 
intelligent  congregation  to  which  it  was  delivered. 
It  foreshadowed  the  high  position  which  he  was  des- 
tined to  occupy  in  the  ministry. 

We  remember  his  first  appearance  in  the  confer- 
ence of  1838.  He  was  young  and  buoyant — the  very 
picture  of  health — and  promised  to  the  Church  many 
years  of  labor  and  of  usefulness.  He  came  to  the 
West  asking  no  other  favor  than  to  be  recognized  as 
a  brother  and  a  fellow-laborer  in  the  Master's  vine- 
yard— to  work  wherever  the  interest  of  the  Church 
might  demand. 

During  the  brief  period  he  had  labored  on  the 
Georgetown  Circuit  he  not  only  won  golden  opinions 
from  the  people,  but  he  was  successful  in  winning 
souls  to  Christ.  His  commanding  presence,  his  piety, 
his  zeal,  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Redeemer, 
together  with  his  extraordinary  talents,  not  only  ren- 
dered him  useful  in  a  high  degree,  but  indicated  the 
lofty  eminence  he  would  occupy  in  the  coming  years. 

At  the  Kentucky  Conference  of  1838  he  was  re- 
turned to  the  Georgetown  Circuit,  with  George  W. 
Simcoe  as  his  colleague,  where  he  spent  a  happy  and 
prosperous  year. 

29 


338  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

In  1839  he  preached  during  the  session  of  the 
conference  in  Russellville.  It  was  on  Thursday  even- 
ing. The  Methodist  Church  was  crowded  to  over- 
flowing, while  many  stood  at  the  doors  and  windows. 
We  saw  him  as  he  entered  the  house,  and  watched 
him  as.  he  walked  down  the  aisle  in  that  careless 
manner  which  always  characterized  him,  his  large 
gray  eyes  resting  on  the  floor.  He  entered  the  pulpit 
and  knelt  for  a  few  minutes  in  silent  prayer.  The 
hymn,  the  public  prayer,  the  "voluntary,"  followed 
each  other  in  rapid  succession.  The  text  was,  "Gather 
my  saints  together  unto  me."*  In  the  commence- 
ment of  the  sermon  the  preacher  was  considerably 
embarrassed.  It  was  his  first  attempt  to  preach  in 
the  presence  of  the  Kentucky  Conference,  and  his 
words  were  tremblingly  uttered.  Bascom,  Tomlinson, 
Stamper,  Crouch,  and  Kavanaugh  were  present.  A 
few  introductory  remarks  were  offered  on  the  life  and 
character  of  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel,  and  then  he 
entered  into  a  rigid  examination  of  the  word  "saint," 
and  what  constitutes  a  saint  in  the  sight  of  God.  To 
become  a  saint  requires,  on  the  part  of  a  sinner,  re- 
pentance toward  God  and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ;  while  God,  on  his  part,  introduces  him  into 
his  family  by  justification,  regeneration,  adoption,  and 
sanctification.  With  great  clearness  he  presented  the 
difference  between  the  justification  and  the  regener- 
ation of  the  sinner — the  former  merely  changing  the 
relation  to  God,  while  the  latter  changes  his  nature. 
Regeneration,  as  he  understood  it  to  be  taught  in  the 
Bible,  was  a  thorough  and  radical  work  of  grace  in 

*Psalm  1,  5. 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  339 

the  heart,  affecting  all  the  component  parts  of  the 
moral  constitution;  it  was  emphatically  a  new  birth. 
A  religion  that  would  not  accomplish  this  fails  i*  its 
grand  design  and  is  not  of  God.  He,  moreover, 
affirmed  that  the  regeneration  of  the  penitent  believer 
is  accompanied  by  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
bearing  testimony  with  his  spirit  that  he  is  born  of 
God.  "He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath 
the  witness  in  himself."*  "What  is  the  witness?"  he 
inquired.  "Let  the  apostle  answer:  '  The  Spirit  itself 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the  chil- 
dren of  God.'f  The  necessity  of  such  testimony  can 
not  but  be  apparent  to  every  thinking  mind.  With- 
out it  the  Christian  can  not  be  happy,  because  he  can 
not  know  whether  he  is  in  God's  favor  or  under  con- 
demnation." In  touching  language  he  referred  to  the 
adoption  of  the  regenerated  person  into  the  family  of 
God,  and  then  showed  that  Christ  demands  of  all  his 
followers  that  they  "grow  in  grace,";};  and  that  they 
add  to  their  "faith  virtue;  and  to  virtue  knowledge; 
and  to  knowledge  temperance ;  and  to  temperance 
patience;  and  to  patience  godliness;  and  to  godliness 
brotherly  kindness;  and  to  brotherly  kindness  char- 
ity; "§  and  never  stop  until  they  have  fathomed  every 
depth  and  ascended  every  height  of  religious  life  and 
are  sanctified  of  God.  The  life  of  a  Christian  is  an 
active  life :  "  For  we  are  laborers  together  with 
God  ;"||  not  loiterers.  No  Christian,  for  a  moment, 
dares  pause  amid  the  conquests  he  has  won.  If  suc- 
cess has  been  achieved,  if  victories  have  been  won, 

•1  John  v,  10.    t  Rom.  viii,  16.    J  2  Pet.  iii,  18.    \  2  Pet.  i, 
5-7.    ||  1  Cor.  iii,  9. 


340  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

difficulties  yet  confront  us  in  the  great  battle  of  life, 
and  we  dare  not  rest  on  our  arms  until  every  foe  is 
con«yuered.  Then,  and  not  until  then,  will  our  war- 
fare be  over  and  our  victory  complete. 

The  peroration  was  thrilling  beyond  description. 
He  had  found  man  a  sinner  in  the  sight  of  God,  ex- 
posed to  almighty  wrath;  he  had  watched  him  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  arrested  him  in  his  career  to  ruin ;  he 
had  seen  him  as  he  resolved  upon  a  better  life,  and 
when  he  "  tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the  pow- 
ers of  the  world  to  come;"*  he  had  followed  him 
through  every  conflict  in  which  he  had  been  engaged 
and  beheld  him  when  victory  perched  upon  his  ban- 
ner; he  watched  his  progress  as  he  ascended  the 
mountain  heights  of  religious  life  until  he  was  sancti- 
fied throughout  spirit  and  soul  and  body  and  become 
"pure  even  as  He  is  pure;"  and  then,  like  a  ripe 
shock  ready  to  be  gathered,  he  saw  him  as  he  entered 
the  "valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,"f  and  listened  to 
strains  of  rapture  as  they  came  back  from  the  borders 
of  the  spirit- world ;  and  he  contemplated,  too,  the 
joys  that  awaited  him  amid  the  resplendent  glories 
of  the  heavenly  state.  Time  passes  on;  the  world 
becomes  hoary  with  age,  and  its  affairs  are  winding 
to  their  close;  the  judgment-day  is  at  hand,  and  the 
nations  are  to  be  called  from  the  sleep  of  ages  to  hear 
their  final  sentence;  but  where  are  the  saints  of  God? 
Scattered  throughout  the  world;  buried,  many  of  them, 
in  unknown  graves,  their  names  have  perished  from 
the  page  of  the  world's  memory;  no  hand  of  friend- 
ship may  plant  over  their  graves  the  evergreen — the 

*  Heb.  vi.  6.    t  Psalm  xxiii,  4. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  341 

emblem  of  immortality — nor  the  rose  to  throw  its 
fragrance  on  the  balmy  air;  no  tears  of  affection  may 
mingle  with  the  dust  that  conceals  them  from  human 
view;  but  the  ever- watchful  eye  of  God  has  kept 
vigils  over  them,  and  not  one,  however  humble  and 
lowly  in  life,  will  be  overlooked  or  forgotten.  Hark! 
an  angel  is  summoned  to  the  presence  of  God,  and 
Jehovah  says  to  him:  "Go,  'gather  my  saints  together 
unto  me/  Let  them  be  the  first  to  be  raised  from, 
the  dead !"  "  Where  shall  I  go  ?"  asks  the  angel. 
"Go  to  the  cave  in  the  field  of  Machpelah ;  call  up 
Abraham  and  Sarah,  Isaac  and  Rebecca,  and  Jacob 
and  Leah.  Go  to  Mount  Nebo,  and  find  the  grave  of 
Moses,  and  bid  him  come  back  to  life.  Go  to  the 
city  of  David,  and  find  the  sepulcher  of  the  son  of 
Jesse,  whose  dulcet  strains  have  chased  sorrow  from 
ten  thousand  hearts,  and  tell  him  'I  am  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life.'*  Go  to  the  graves  of  the  prophets 
who  foretold  the  advent  of  the  woman's  conquering 
Seed  and  the  splendors  of  his  r^ign,  and  tell  them, 
'  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also.'f  Go  to  the  im- 
perial city,  where  Paul  the  apostle  slumbers,  and 
awaken  him  from  the  sleep  of  centuries.  Go  to  Ger- 
many, and  gather  Luther  and  Melanchthon.  Go  to 
England,  and  lift  the  stone  from  the  grave  of  John 
Wesley,  and  tell  him  to  rise  and  throw  off  the  fetters 
of  the  tomb.  Call  Coke  from  his  coral  bed,  where  he 
has  slept  so  long.  Go  to  Africa,  and  awaken  Mellville 
B.  Cox.  Go  to  America,  and  call  Asbury  from  his 
tomb  in  the  Monumental  City,  and  McKendree  from 
the  forests  of  Tennessee.  Wherever  one  of  my  saints 
*  John  xi,  25.  t  John  xiv,  19. 


342  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

sleeps,  go  and  awake  him,  and  ( gather  him  unto  me/ }) 
The  angel  continues  his  search,  and  from  ocean  and 
from  earth  the  saints  of  God  are  rising;  from  every 
continent,  every  island,  and  every  isthmus  they  are 
coming  in  obedience  to  the  summons  of  God.  In  his 
majestic  flight  through  the  world  he  overtakes  Death, 
who  tries  to  escape  from  his  presence,  and  asks  him 
whether  a  saint  of  God  is  confined  within  his  empire. 
"No,"  he  replies;  "I  have  captured  thousands,  and 
carried  them  to  my  dominions  and  bound  them  with 
fetters.  I  thought  I  had  them  secure,  but  they  have 
broken  the  massive  bars,  abandoned  the  graves  where 
they  had  slumbered  long,  and  destroyed  my  power 
forever."  He  meets  the  prince  of  darkness,  and  in- 
quires whether  one  saint  can  be  found  within  his 
realm.  "No,  not  one;  but  it  is  no  fault  of  mine.  I 
followed  them  through  every  step  of  life;  I  offered 
them  the  world,  with  all  its  pageantry  and  tinsel  and 
glare,  if  they  would  serve  me ;  I  pledged  them  riches 
and  pleasure  and  fkme,  but  their  ears  were  deaf  to 
my  persuasions;  I  confronted  them  with  difficulties, 
but  they  overcame  them;  I  placed  snares  in  their 
path,  but  they  shunned  them;  I  left  no  means  unem- 
ployed to  destroy  them,  but  they  eluded  my  grasp. 
No,  not  one  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  regions  of  woe." 
The  work  is  done,  and  the  angel  returns  to  God. 

From  the  conference  at  Eussellville  Mr.  Linn  was 
appointed  to  Maysville,  one  of  the  most  pleasant  sta- 
tions in  the  conference.  He  entered  upon  his  work 
as  early  after  the  close  of  the  conference  as  was  prac- 
ticable, meeting  with  a  cordial  reception  from  the 
Church  and  the  community.  During  the  Winter  his 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  343 

congregations  were  large  and  attentive,  and  consider- 
able interest  was  manifested  among  the  people  on  the 
subject  of  religion.  Early  in  February  a  meeting 
was  commenced,  in  which  he  was  assisted  by  Mr. 
Maffitt,  during  which  one  hundred  and  fifteen  persons 
were  added  to  the  Church,  and  more  than  that  num- 
ber happily  converted.  The  influence  of  this  meeting 
extended  through  the  entire  community,  leaving  its 
benedictions  on  many  a  heart.  Other  communions 
realized  blessings  from  it.  Under  the  ministry  of 
Mr.  Linn  the  white  membership  in  Maysville  in- 
creased from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred 
and  five,  and  the  colored  from  eighty-two  to  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty. 

While  Mr.  Linn  was  stationed  in  Maysville  he 
made  a  visit  to  Georgetown,  his  former  field  of  labor. 
The  Church  he  had  served  so  faithfully  and  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  had  lived  so  pleasantly  were  glad 
to  see  him  again.  He  was  met  by  them  with  a  cor- 
diality and  warmth  that  thrilled  him  with  emotions 
he  could  not  conceal.  Among  his  numerous  admirers 
was  an  old  colored  member  of  the  Church.  The 
preacher  had  left  them  the  Autumn  before,  well  but 
plainly  dressed.  The  warm  hand  and  generous  heart 
of  friendship,  in  Maysville,  had  dressed  him  hand- 
somely. Wrapped  in  a  fine  and  costly  cloak,  he  was 
met  by  the  old  man  on  the  street,  and  accosted  with : 
"Well,  well,  you  sorter  looked  like  Brother  Linn; 
but  you  gotten  to  be  so  much  like  a  gentleman  that 
I  declare  I  did  n't  know  you.  I 's  so  glad  to  see  you, 
ef  you  is  a  gentleman." 

From  Maysville  we  follow  Mr.  Linn  to  Fourth 


344  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Street  Church,  in  Louisville,  where  he  was  stationed 
in  1840,  and  the  year  following  to  Harrodsburg  and 
Danville.  The  commanding  talents  of  Mr.  Linn  be- 
gan to  attract  attention  abroad.  In  1842  he  was 
transferred  to  Missouri  Conference,  and  stationed  at 
Centenary  Church,  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  where  he 
continued  two  years.  In  1844  he  was  agent  for  St. 
Charles  College,  and  in  1845  was  stationed  in  Han- 
nibal. In  1846  he  was  transferred  to  the  St.  Louis 
Conference,  and  stationed  in  Jefferson  City ;  and  in 
1847  he  was  stationed  at  Fourth  Street,  St.  Louis, 
where  he  spent  two  years. 

He  returned  to  Kentucky  in  1849,  and  was  ap- 
pointed to  Fourth  Street,  then  in  the  Louisville  Con- 
ference, where  nine  years  before  he  had  been  emi- 
nently useful.  Here  he  was  continued  two  years.  In, 
1851  he  was  transferred  to  the  Kentucky  Conference, 
and  stationed  for  two  years  at  Soule  Chapel,  Cincin- 
nati. In  1853  his  appointment  was  to  Frankfort, 
to  which  he  was  returned  the  year  following.  In 
1855  he  was  sent  to  Danville,  and  the  two  years  fol- 
lowing to  Lexington,  and  then  two  years  to  Shel- 
byville. 

In  1860  he  was  transferred  to  the  Louisville  Con- 
ference, and  stationed  at  Walnut  Street.  He  next 
served  the  Brook  Street  Church  two  years.  In  1863 
he  was  stationed  at  Eighth  Street,  and  then  two  years 
at  Chestnut,  and  then  at  Brook  Street  again  two 
years,  and  in  1867  and  1868  at  Broadway — the 
Broadway  and  Chestnut  Street  churches  both  having 
been  erected  under  his  supervision. 

While  at  Broadway,  in  the  Spring  of  1869,  he 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  345 

was  transferred  to  the  Baltimore  Conference,  and  sta- 
tioned for  two  years  at  Central  Church,  in  the  city 
of  Baltimore.  In  1871  he  was  transferred  to  the  St. 
Louis  Conference,  and  stationed  for  two  years  at  Cen- 
tenary, in  the  city  of  St.  Louis. 

Dr.  Linn  was  becoming  feeble;  and  his  brethren 
of  the  Louisville  Conference  importuned  him  to  return 
to  Kentucky,  and  die  in  their  midst.  In  1874  he  was 
transferred  to  the  Louisville  Conference,  and  stationed 
for  two  years  at  Chestnut  Street,  in  Louisville.  His 
last  appointment  was,  in  1876,  to  the  Louisville  Dis- 
trict, as  presiding  elder.  It  was  evident  that  he 
would  not  be  able  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the 
office;  but  both  preachers  and  people  were  anxious 
for  his  appointment  to  that  position — the  former  that 
by  their  assistance  they  might  lighten  his  work,  and 
the  latter  that  they  might  have  the  care  and  support 
of  one  who  had  contributed  more  to  the  success  of 
the  Church  in  the  city  than  any  other  preacher. 

After  his  appointment  to  the  Louisville  District 
he  lived  but  a  short  time.  He  died  in  great  peace, 
December  7,  1876. 

The  inquiry  may  be  made  as  to  why  he  so  fre- 
quently changed  his  conference  relations.  It  was  not 
from  any  wish  of  his  that  he  did  so,  but  because  of 
the  pressing  demand  in  all  the  principal  cities  for  his 
ministry.  Under  his  own  protest  he  was  often  trans- 
ferred from  one  conference  to  another,  yet  cheerfully 
submitting  to  the  authorities  of  the  Church. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference 
three  times— in  1846,  1858,  and  1866. 

He  was  twice  married.     His  first  wife  was  Miss 


346  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

Woody ard,  of  Cynthiana,  a  lady  of  rare  accomplish- 
ments ;  his  second  wife  was  Miss  Tompkins,  of  Dan- 
ville, who  was  eminently  qualified  for  the  responsible 
position  of  a  preacher's  wife. 

The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  was  conferred 
upon  him  in  1850. 

"  Dr.  Linn  was  truly  a  converted  and  holy  man. 
He  was  called  of  God  to  the  Christian  ministry.  He 
was  a  sound  theologian.  He  was  an  uncompromising 
Methodist,  both  in  doctrine  and  discipline;  and  at  the 
same  time,  and  for  this  reason,  he  was  a  catholic 
Christian,  loving  all  the  people  of  God,  and  associat- 
ing with  them  upon  the  most  intimate  terms.  He  was 
a  faithful  minister  of  Christ.  He  defended  the  truth, 
he  exposed  error,  he  denounced  sin  among  all  classes. 
Dr.  Linn  was  a  man  of  a  very  high  order  of  genius. 
While  in  the  prime  of  life  he  possessed  in  a  very 
high  degree  the  reproductive  power,  combined  with 
the  comparative  faculty,  which  invested  him  with  the 
highest  degree  of  the  creative  imagination.  All  that 
he  had  ever  known  in  nature,  in  art,  in  science,  in 
philosophy,  or  history,  he  could  reproduce  and  make 
available  to  the  illustration  and  enforcement  of  divine 
truth.  His  discourses  were  often  a  combination  of 
the  overwhelmingly  sublime  and  of  the  transcend- 
dently  beautiful.  Though  possessing  a  princely  pres- 
ence, he  was  not  in  the  highest  sense  an  orator.  His 
voice  was  strong  and  masculine,  but  lacked  flexibility 
and  music;  it  was,  indeed,  a  deep  bass  monotone. 
But,  though  he  lacked  most  of  the  qualities  of  an 
orator,  he  was,  in  a  very  high  sense,  'an  eloquent 
man.'  He  spoke  out  of  the  heart,  and  reached  the  hearts 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  347 

of  his  hearers,  and  so  captivated  them  that,  for  the 
time,  he  had  complete  control  of  them.  He  excelled 
more  as  a  rhetorician  than  a  logician.  He  had  just 
enough  of  logic  to  open  the  way  for  his  wonderful 
rhetorical  appeals.  In  the  death  of  Dr.  Linn  'a 
prince  and  a  great  man  is  fallen  among  us.'  But  our 
comfort  is  that,  having  fulfilled  the  ministry  which 
he  had  received  from  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the 
Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God,  he  has  finished  his  course 
with  joy,  and  has  gone  to  receive  his  reward.  ( Though 
dead,  he  yet  speaketh.'"* 

The  mention  of  another  name  in  this  chapter  is 
highly  proper. 

George  W.  Brush  was  born  in  Rockbridge  County, 
Va.,  October  28,  1805.  His  mother,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Nancy  Caven,  was  born  in  the  North  of 
Ireland;  his  grandmother  on  his  mother's  side,  Eliz- 
abeth McCaw,  was  reared  iii  Scotland,  and  belonged 
to  the  Kirk.  Rockbridge  County,  Va.,  had  been  the 
home  of  his  paternal  ancestry  for  several  generations. 
His  father,  John  Brush,  and  Blakeley  Brush,  his  grand- 
father, were  born  in  that  county,  and  also  his  great- 
grandfather, who  was  killed  by  the  Indians.  John 
Brush  removed  to  Kentucky  in  November,  1806,  and 
settled  in  Shelby  County,  where  his  son  remained 
until  1824,  when  we  find  him  in  Bullitt  County, 
teaching  a  small  country  school.  His  parents  were 
prominent  and  zealous  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church;  and,  although  their  son  was  distinguished 
rather  for  his  wildness  than  for  any  adaptation  to  the 
pulpit,  it  was  their  earnest  desire  that  he  should  be- 

*N.  H.  Lee,  D.  D.,  in  Minutes  Louisville  Conference. 


348  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

come  a  minister  in  their  Church.  With  but  little  or 
no  inclination  toward  a  religious  life,  he,  however, 
attended  preaching  at  the  church  of  his  parents,  oc- 
casionally visiting  a  Baptist  or  a. Methodist  meeting 
when  there  was  no  preaching  in  their  church.  His 
mother,  although  prejudiced  against  the  Methodists, 
was  a  woman  whose  piety  was  deep  and  uniform. 
On  one  occasion  she  attended  a  Methodist  camp- 
meeting  on  a  week-day,  hardly  thinking  it  proper  for 
a  Christian  woman  to  be  found  at  such  a  place  on  the 
Sabbath;  and  in  an  account  of  the  meeting  she  gave 
in  her  family  she  said :  "  Some  of  the  people  were 
cooking,  some  talking,  some  coming,  some  going,  and 
quite  a  number  about  the  stand,  where  they  were 
singing,  praying,  shouting,  and,  after  awhile,  preach- 
ing;" and  she  added:  "But  the  one  we  heard  spoke 
well',  indeed,  and  seemed  to  be  a  good  man,  and  well 
acquainted  with  the  Scriptures." 

Young  Brush  had  heard  one  or  two  local  preach- 
ers in  the  Methodist  Church,  under  whose  ministry 
he  had  been  made  to  feel  uneasy;  and  under  a  ser- 
mon preached  by  Dr.  Clellaud  he  had  been  greatly 
alarmed,  and  in  the  church  cried  aloud  for  mercy. 
His  religious  impressions,  however,  were  soon  effaced, 
and  in  the  society  of  wild  associates  he  drowned  the 
voice  of  conscience  and  forgot  the  teachings  of  child- 
hood. The  first  traveling  preacher  with  whom  he 
ever  met  was  Benjamin  T.  Crouch,  for  whom  he  en- 
tertained feelings  of  the  highest  regard. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1826  Richard  D.  Neale,  dis- 
tinguished for  his  zeal,  was  appointed  to  the  Jeffer- 
son Circuit,  which  included  Bullitt  County,  in  which 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  349 

George  W.  Brush  resided.  Sociable  in  his  disposi- 
tion and  courteous  in  his  manner,  the  zealous  preacher 
soon  won  upon  the  affections  of  the  young  school- 
master, who,  through  his  instrumentality,  was  brought 
into  the  Methodist  Church  and  soundly  converted  to 
God.  Feeling  that  he  was  called  to  preach  the  Gos- 
pel, he  reluctantly  yielded  to  his  convictions,  and  on 
the  6th  of  October,  1828,  he  was  licensed  to  preach 
by  Marcus  Liudsey,  and  at  once  entered  the  itiner- 
ant ranks. 

The  appointment  of  George  W.  Brush  to  the 
Shelbyville  and  Brick  Chapel  Station  was  unexpected 
alike  to  the  preacher  and  the  congregation.  The 
Church,  however,  received  him  kindly,  and  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Master  he  entered  upon  his  work.  He 
reached  his  new  field  in  due  time,  and  preached  at 
eleven  o'clock,  on  the  first  Sunday,  at  the  Brick 
Chapel,  to  a  crowded  audience,  several  of  whom  re- 
sided in  Shelbyville.  At  night  his  appointment  was 
in  the  town,  and  not  only  the  Methodists,  but  the 
members  of  other  Churches,  were  present  to  give  him 
a  welcome.  The  church  was  densely  packed.  The 
good  John  Tevis  was  sitting  in  the  pulpit,  and  the 
pious  William  Atherton  in  the  altar.  A  slender 
young  man,  with  a  pleasant  countenance,  nearly  six 
feet  high,  weighing  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  with  grayish-blue  eyes  and  jet-black  hair, 
entered  the  church  and  walked  into  the  pulpit.  It 
was  George  W.  Brush,  the  new  preacher.*  He  read 
his  hymn,  after  which  the  congregation  sang;  he 

*We  resided  in  Shelbyville,  and  had  just  joined  the 
Church,  and  were  present  on  this  occasion. 


350  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

then  prayed,  and  another  hymn  was  read  and  sung. 
"  Therefore  let  no  man  glory  in  men  :  for  all  things 
are  yours;  whether  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas,  or 
the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things  present,  or 
things  to  come;  all  are  yours;  and  ye  are  Christ's; 
and  Christ  is  God's,"  was  announced  as  the  text. 
The  sermon  was  brief,  delivered  in  a  plain,  conversa- 
tional style.  In  it  there  was  nothing  great,  accord- 
ing to  the  estimation  of  the  world ;  there  was  no 
rhetorical  display,  no  burst  of  eloquence,  no  flash  of 
lightning,  no  peal  of  thunder ;  it  was  the  message  of 
life  and  salvation,  delivered,  not  in  "  enticing  words  of 
man's  wisdom,"  but  in  the  simplicity  of  Gospel  truth. 
If  in  the  pulpit  Mr.  Brush  made  a  favorable  im- 
pression upon  the  Church  he  was  appointed  to  serve, 
in  his  social  intercourse  he  made  friends  in  every 
circle.  Sociable  in  his  disposition,  and  pleasant  in  his 
intercourse  with  the  community,  he  won  the  hearts 
of  the  people  in  other  communions  as  well  as  in  his 
own.  As  a  preacher  he  was  not  considered  great,  yet 
crowds  waited  upon  his  ministry,  and  each  person  left 
the  house  of  God,  after  hearing  him,  resolved  to  be 
better  than  ever  before.  His  preaching  was  peculiar. 
No  one  preached  as  he  did,  and  he  copied  from  no 
other  person.  Short,  pointed,  practical  sermons,  from 
week  to  week,  fell  from  his  lips,  and  urged  his  con- 
gregation to  a  better,  a  holier,  and  a  higher  life. 
Under  his  ministry  a  Bible-class  was  formed,  of  which 
he  was  the  leader ;  the  Sunday-school  prospered ;  the 
prayer-meetings  were  well  attended ;  the  class-room 
was  crowded,  and  prospects  for  a  revival  were  more 
promising  than  they  had  been  for  many  years.  Every 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  351 

body  knew  the  preacher,  and  every  body  loved  him. 
He  visited  the  homes  of  wealth  and  influence,  and 
was  the  companion  of  the  poor  and  the  humble  ;  his 
prayers  went  up  from  every  family  altar,  and  from 
the  bedside  of  the  sick  and  the  dying. 

The  Winter  was  over;  gentle  Spring,  with  its 
sunshine  and  flowers,  came  and  passed  away.  On  the 
3d  of  June  the  third  quarterly-meeting  commenced. 
The  Church  had  been  looking  to  this  occasion  with 
prayerful  interest.  In  the  class-room  the  quarterly- 
meeting  was  talked  of,  and  prayers  were  offered  for  a 
revival  of  the  work  of  God.  On  the  street  members 
of  the  Church  conversed  freely  on  the  subject  of  re- 
ligion, and  not  only  expressed  the  hope  that  souls 
would  be  converted  during  the  meeting,  but  that 
much  good  would  be  done.  From  the  commence- 
ment of  the  meeting  the  signs  of  the  times  were 
favorable  for  a  general  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  upon 
the  people.  The  first  night  penitents  were  invited  to 
the  altar,  and  several  persons  presented  themselves 
for  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  and  two  or  three  pro- 
fessed faith  in  Christ.  As  the  meeting  progressed  the 
interest  increased,  and  before  a  week  had  elapsed  the 
altar  was  crowded  with  persons  anxiously  inquiring 
the  way  of  life  and  salvation,  and  many  had  "passed 
from  death  unto  life."  In  the  Western  Christian  Ad- 
vocate of  June  20th,  a  letter  from  the  pastor  of  the 
Church  was  published,  dated  June  llth,  in  which  he 
says:  "Our  third  quarterly-meeting  commenced  eight 
days  since,  and  we  are  holding  it  still.  Fifty-eight 
whites  and  twenty-eight  colored  joined ;  fifty  con- 
verted;  meeting  yet  going  on." 


352  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

As  the  meeting  was  protracted  from  day  to  day, 
and  from  week  to  week,  its  influence  permeated  the 
entire  community,  extending  to  every  class  of  soci- 
ety, awakening  the  young  and  the  old,  embracing 
many  heads  of  families — men  and  women  of  influ- 
ence— and  reaching  to  those  who  had  hitherto  been 
impervious  to  the  claims  of  religion.*  Some  who 
up  to  this  time  had  discarded  Christianity  altogether, 
and  were  distinguished  for  their  wickedness,  recog- 
nized the  claims  of  religion,  bowed  to  the  scepter  of 
Christ,  and  became  burning  and  shining  lights  in  the 
Church  of  God,  while  many  remembered  "their  Cre- 
ator in  the  days  of  their  youth,"  some  of  whom  are 
yet  living  to  adorn  the  profession  they  made.f 

During  the  entire  meeting  commendable  zeal  was 
displayed  by  the  membership  of  the  Church,  who 
contributed  largely  to  its  success.  They  visited  and 
conversed  freely  on  the  subject  of  religion  with  such 
as  were  serious,  and  bore  an  active  part  in  the  exer- 
cises of  the  altar. 

The  entire  community  was  aroused,  and  not  only 

*The  author's  father  and  mother,  also  his  uncle -Samuel 
Wise  Topping,  by  whose  charity  he  was  brought  up  and  edu- 
cated— joined  the  Church  at  this  time. 

T  During  the  progress  of  the  meeting  Mr.  Brush  met  on  the 
street  Thomas  P.  Wilson,  an  eminent  lawyer  and  Judge  of  the 
Circuit  Court,  and  said  to  him,  "Judge  Wilson,  what  would 
you  think  of  me  if  I  were  to  remain  here  a  year,  and  say 
nothing  to  you  about  saving  your  soul?"  "  I  would  regard  you 
as  a  very  unfaithful  preacher,"  was  the  reply.  "  What  does 
Mrs.  Wilson  think  on  this  subject?"  he  then  asked.  "  Call  and 
see  her,  and  inquire  for  yourself,"  replied  the  judge.  On  the 
Friday  following  this  conversation  Judge  Wilson,  with  his  wife 
and  son  and  sister-in-law,  joined  the  Church. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGII.  353 

the  village,  but  the  surrounding  country,  was  in  a 
blaze.  From  the  rural  districts  the  people  came  sev- 
eral miles  to  Church,  and  many  who  were  prompted 
to  attend  these  meetings  through  curiosity  became 
awakened  and  returned  to  their  homes  "  clothed  and 
in  their  right  mind."  Indeed,  so  great  was  the 
influence  excited  that  a  holy  atmosphere  seemed  to 
surround  the  place  of  worship.*  When  the  meet- 
ing closed  nearly  two  hundred  persons  had  been 
converted. f 

While  the  Methodist  Church  in  Shelbyville  was 
being  so  greatly  blessed,  other  denominations  of  Chris- 
tians received  valuable  accessions  to  their  Churches. 

The  influence  of  this  extraordinary  revival  did 
not  stop  with  the  close  of  the  meeting.  Two  months 
later  a  camp-meeting  was  held  at  Cardwell's  Camp- 
ground, three  miles  east  of  Shelbyville,  and  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Brick  Chapel.  The  meeting  was  one 
of  great  power.  On  one  occasion  during  its  progress 
the  heavens  became  black  with  angry  clouds,  fierce 
lightnings  leaped  along  the  sky,  and  thunder  muttered 
solemn  peals.  The  audience  retired  to  the  tents.  The 
rain  fell  in  torrents — it  was  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon — and  at  nightfall  there  was  no  abatement; 

*  A  gentleman  said  to  the  author,  several  years  after  this 
meeting,  that  when  lie  entered  the  church-yard,  during  its 
progress,  he  felt  a  religious  influence  he  could  not  express. 

t  A  young  man  professed  religion  during  this  meeting,  and 
joined  the  Methodist  Church.  His  uncle  and  guardian,  who 
was  a  prominent  memher  of  the  Campbellite  Church,  was  dis- 
satisfied with  this  step  on  the  part  of  his  nephew,  and  re- 
quired him  to  withdraw  from  the  Methodist  Church  and  to  join 
the  Campbellite  Church.  This  compulsion  unsettled  him  in  his 
religious  character,  and  In-  soon  became  :i  wreck  in  his  morals. 


354  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

the  stars  were  still  concealed,  and  the  elements  ap- 
peared to  be  engaged  in  angry  strife.  Peace  and  joy, 
however,  reigned  within  the  tents.  Preaching,  ex- 
hortation, singing,  prayer,  followed  in  quick  succes- 
sion ;  cries  for  mercy  rent  the  air ;  shouts  of  con- 
verted souls  pierced  the  heavens;  the  Church  partook 
of  the  joy.  On  that  memorable  night  about  forty 
souls  were  converted.*  Nearly  one  hundred  persons 
professed  religion  at  that  camp-meeting. 

From  this  period  Mr.  Brush  took  a  high  rank  in 
the  conference.  He  was  returned  to  Shelbyville  in 
1834,  where  his  labors  continued  to  be  blessed.  In 
1835  he  was  sent  to  Maysville,  where  he  witnessed  a 
gracious  revival  of  religion.  After  remaining  at  Mays- 
ville two  years,  he  was  appointed  in  1837  to  Brook 
Street,  in  the  city  of  Louisville.  The  city  this  year 
was  favored  with  the  most  extraordinary  revivals  of 
religion. 

Francis  A.  Dighton,  of  the  Erie  Conference,  agent 
for  the  American  Bible  Society,  this  year  visited  Louis- 
ville. The  duties  of  the  agency  which  he  had  accepted, 
and  which  he  was  faithfully  prosecuting,  brought  Mr. 
Dighton  to  the  city  of  Louisville,  where  he  was  des- 
tined to  gather  many  stars  to  deck  the  crown  of  his 
rejoicing.  Consumption,  that  sure  destroyer,  had 
fastened  its  fangs  in  his  system,  and  he  was  rapidly 
hastening  to  the  grave.  He  had  a  message,  however, 
from  God  to  mankind,  and  he  was  delivering  it  with 
an  energy  and  ardor  to  which  his  wasting  strength 
was  not  equal.  Easy  in  his  manners,  agreeable  in 

*  Among  them  the  mother  of  the  author,  who  had  joined 
the  Church  in  June  preceding,  as  a  seeker  of  religion. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  355 

• 

conversation,  eloquent  in  the  pulpit,  and  fervent  in 
his  work,  he  was  beloved  wherever  known. 

The  ministry  of  Mr.  Dighton  in  the  city  of  Louis- 
ville was  confined  to  Fourth  Street  Church,  where 
Richard  Tydings  was  stationed,  and  resulted  in  an 
extraordinary  revival  of  religion,  in  which  more  than 
one  hundred  persons  were  happily  converted. 

Mr.  Dighton  had  come  to  Louisville  a  stranger, 
almost  unknown ;  he  left  the  city  with  the  blessing 
of  hundreds.* 

The  notes  of  triumph  at  Fourth  Street  had  not 
died  away  before  the  Brook  Street  Church,  in  the 
same  city,  also  experienced  a  revival,  which  had  no 
parallel  in  Louisville  in  the  past.  The  meeting  com- 
menced about  the  first  of  January,  under  the  minis- 
try of  George  W.  Brush,  the  pastor  of  the  Church; 
and  soon  showed  indications  of  a  good  work.  After 
it  had  been  in  progress  for  five  weeks,  without  any 
cessation,  Mr.  Brush  writes :  "  There  is  now  going 
forward  in  the  Methodist  Church,  on  Brook  Street, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  revivals  of  the  work  of  God 
that  has  ever  been  seen  here.  It  is  now  five  weeks 
since  it  began,  but  for  seven  days  past  it  has  swept 
all  before  it.  The  crowd  is  so  great  every  evening 
that  few  pretend  to  keep  their  seats,  and  unless  the 
mourners  take  their  place  in  the  altar  before  preach- 
ing, it  is  fruitless  to  attempt  making  their  way  thither 
after  the  crowd  has  convened.  We  regularly  dismiss 
the  people  at  10  o'clock,  but  they  do  not  leave  until 
12  and  1  o'clock.  We  are  unable  to  give  the  num- 

*  Mr.  Dighton's  health  rapidly  declined  after  he  left  Louis- 
ville. He  died  December  2(>,  1838. 


356  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

•  i 

her  of  converts;  we  kept  count  for  awhile,  but  the 
battle  grew  so  warm  that  no  one  could  tell  who  or 
how  many  were  blessed.  There  were  mourners  in  ev- 
ery part  of  the  house.  One  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
have  given  in  their  names  to  join  the  Church.  A  great 
many — perhaps  seventy -five — have  been  converted; 
and  yet,  on  last  evening,  more  than  sixty  were  at  the 
altar  for  prayer  and  instruction.  Among  all  the  con- 
verts, we  know  of  only  three  or  four  who  did  not  join 
the  Church  before  they  found  the  blessing.  The  char- 
acter of  those  who  have  joined  gives  good  ground  to 
hope  that  this  will  prove  to  have  been  a  sound  and 
genuine  work  of  God.  We  have  had  comparatively 
but  little  preaching.  The  sermons  preached  have  sel- 
dom been  more  than  thirty  minutes  long,  and  often 
we  exhort  and  call  the  mourners  at  once.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  were  a  little  slow  at  first  to  go 
into  the  work ;  but  when  once  they  made  a  break, 
they  threw  their  whole  souls  into  it.  Many  of  the  sis- 
ters, too,  have  been  '  our  helpers  in  Christ  Jesus.' "  * 

The  meeting  was  still  in  progress  when  the  above 
letter  was  written.  The  interest  continued  to  increase, 
reaching  in  its  influence  every  portion  of  the  city. 
At  a  later  period  another  letter  is  published,  from 
the  pen  of  the  pastor,  announcing  that  two  hundred 
and  twenty  persons  had  joined  the  Church,  and  about 
the  same  number  had  been  converted  to  God.f  The 
meeting  continued  forty  days,  and  before  its  close 
four  hundred  persons  joined  the  Church. 

The  year  following  Mr.  Brush  remained  at  Brook 

*  Western  Christian  Advocate,  March  9,  1838. 
t  Western  Christian  Advocate,  March  23,  1838. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  357 

Street,  where  his  ministry  continued  to  be  blessed. 
In  1839  he  was  sent  to  Lexington,  where  he  remained 
two  years.  Although  the  same  success  did  not  crown 
his  labors  as  in  Louisville,  yet  the  Church  enjoyed 
some  prosperity.  After  spending  one  year  as  agent 
of  the  Preachers'  Aid  Society,  in  1842  he  was  re- 
turned to  Louisville  and  stationed  two  years  at  Fourth 
Street.  These  two  years  required  great  labor  on  the 
part  of  the  pastor;  and  while  the  Church  enjoyed 
revival  seasons,  the  health  of  Mr.  Brush  became 
so  impaired  that  his  removal  from  the  city  became  a 
necessity,  hence  we  find  him  the  following  year  on  the 
Middletown  Circuit.  In  1845  he  is  stationed  in  Lex- 
ington, from  whence  we  follow  him  to  Millersburg,  to 
wGich  he  was  returned  the  following  year,  with  the 
beautiful  town  of  Paris  attached.  He  next  spent  two 
years  in  Frankfort,  the  capital  of  the  State,  where  he 
was  useful.  In  1850  we  meet  with  him  again  at 
Shelbyville,  where  he  had  won  a  brilliant  victory, 
and  where  he  remains  two  years.  From  thence  he 
returns  to  Frankfort,  but  after  one  year  he  travels  the 
Taylorsville  Circuit,  then  the  Simpson ville,  and  is 
then  for  one  year  agent  for  the  Tract  Society  of  Ken- 
tucky Conference.  In  1856  his  appointment  was 
La  Grange  and  Westport,  and  the  next  year  he  was 
returned  to  Simpsonville. 

In  1858  he  was  transferred  to  the  Louisville  Con- 
ference, and  after  serving  the  Middletown  Circuit  two 
years,  in  1860  he  was  appointed  principal  of  Jefferson 
Female  Academy,  located  in  Middletown.  In  1861 
and  1862  he  had  charge  of  Eighth  Street,  in  Louis- 
ville, and  the  next  two  years  of  Walnut  Street,  and 


358  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

in  1865  was  at  Shelby  Street.  He  traveled  Jefferson- 
town  Circuit  from  1866  to  1868,  when  he  was  appointed 
to  the  Louisville  District  as  presiding,  elder,  where  he 
was  continued  until  1871.  He  then  served  success- 
ively Owensboro,  Henderson,  Lebanon,  and  Jefferson- 
ville  Stations.  His  last  effective  work  was  as  agent  for 
the  Widows'  and  Orphans'  Home.  He  was  placed  on 
the  superannuated  list  at  the  conference  of  1880,  and 
died  on  the  13th  of  November  after. 

But  few  preachers  in  Kentucky  were  ever  more 
useful  or  more  successful  in  winning  souls  to  Christ 
than.  George  W.  Brush.  From  1828  to  1880,  a 
period  of  fifty-two  years,  he  was  in  the  itinerant 
ranks,  fifty-one  of  which  he  was  effective.  During 
this  period  success  followed  his  labors,  and  under  his 
ministry  thousands  were  converted  and  brought  into 
the  Church. 

As  a  preacher  he  was  not  great,  measured  by  the 
standard  of  the  world,  yet  he  was  great  in  the  beau- 
tiful simplicity  of  his  style,  and  in  his  close  adher- 
ence to  the  teachings  of  the  Bible.  His  sermons  were 
practical,  and  led  men  to  a  better  and  higher  life. 

As  a  pastor  he  excelled,  and  in  social  life  by  the 
suavity  of  his  manners  and  his  fine  conversational 
powers,  he  accomplished  great  good. 

He  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  was  Miss 
Finley,  of  Jefferson  County ;  his  second,  Mrs.  Mix, 
of  Louisville. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of 
of  1844,  1846,  and  of  1850. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  359 


CHAPTER  X. 

FROM  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  KENTUCKY  CONFERENCE 

OF  1850  TO  THE  GENERAL  CONFER- 

ENCE OF  1854. 


B.  BASCOM,  a  member  of  the  Kentucky 
Conference,  had  been  elected  to  the  office  of 
bishop  in  May,  1850.  No  minister  in  the  Church 
had  ever  been  invested  with  episcopal  prerogatives 
who  promised  greater  usefulness  than  did  this  distin- 
guished preacher  of  the  Gospel.  .  His  career,  however, 
as  a  bishop,  was  brief.  He  presided  over  but  one 
conference  —  the  St.  Louis.  A  short  time  after  the 
adjournment  of  that  conference  he  arrived  in  Louis- 
ville, on  his  way  to  his  home  in  Lexington,  quite  ill. 
He  was  the  guest  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stevenson.  Unable 
to  proceed  on  his  journey,  he  remained  at  the  home 
of  his  friend  for  several  weeks,  continually  growing 
worse,  until  the  8th  Of  September,  when,  in  full  hope 
of  eternal  life,  he  breathed  his  last. 

Not  only  the  Methodist  Church  mourned  the  death 
of  Bishop  Bascom,  but  the  nation  felt  the  loss.  A 
great  man  in  Israel  had  fallen,  but  the  bereavement 
was  felt  nowhere  as  in  Kentucky.  The  members  of 
the  Kentucky  Conference  had  associated  with  him  in 
closest  fellowship  and  Christian  intercourse.  They 
knew  him  bettor  and  loved  him  more  than  any  other 
section  of  the  Church.  For  nearly  twenty  years  he 


360  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

had  been  their  leader,  answering  to  the  roll  call,  but 
now  his  silver  notes  are  heard  no  more.  The  brill- 
iant Bascom  is  dead. 

On  the  first  morning  of  the  session  a  resolution 
was  adopted  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mittee whose  duty  it  should  be  to  make  arrangements 
with  the  Committee  on  Public  Worship  "  to  have  the 
funeral  of  Bishop  Bascom  preached  at  some  suitable 
time  during  the  session  of  the  conference."  At  the 
Louisville  Conference,  which  had  just  adjourned,  sim- 
ilar action  had  been  taken,  and  the  task  of  preaching 
the  sermon  had  devolved  on  his  colleague,  Bishop 
Andrew.  He  performed  the  same  duty  at  the  Ken- 
tucky Conference. 

In  1850  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  returned  to  Scott 
Street  Church,  Covington,  where  he  had  labored  the 
year  before. 

George  W.  Merritt,  his  old  friend,  was  his  near 
neighbor,  being  stationed  in  Newport,  where  a  gra- 
cious revival  crowned  his  labors. 

George  W.  Merritt  was  born  in  Fincastle,  Bote- 
tourt  County,  Virginia,  April  17,  1807.  Losing  his 
parents  when  he  was  quite  young,  he  was  placed  under 
the  care  of  an  elder  brother,  who  resided  in  Staunton, 
Virginia,  where  he  was  brought  up  and  educated.  In 
the  Autumn  of  1827  he  came  to  Kentucky  and  settled 
in  Winchester.  During  the  same  year,  under  the 
ministry  of  Henry  McDaniel,  a  good  and  pure  man, 
he  was  awakened  to  his  condition  as  a  sinner,  and 
was  received  into  the  Church  as  a  seeker  of  religion 
by  Milton  Jamieson.  A  short  time  afterward  he 
found  the  Pearl  of  great  price.  He  was  soon  impressed 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  361 

with  the  conviction  that  it  was  his  duty  to  proclaim 
the  tidings  of  a  Redeemer's  love  to  perishing  sinners, 
yet  felt  reluctant  to  enter  upon  so  responsible  a  work. 
In  the  meantime  he  removed  to  Lexington,  where,  in 
1833,  he  was  licensed  to  preach  by  William  Gunn,  at 
that  time  the  presiding  elder  on  the  Lexington  Dis- 
trict. In  the  Spring  of  1834  he  was  employed  by 
William  Adams,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Gunn  as  presid- 
ing elder,  to  travel  on  the  Madison  Circuit,  with 
James  Ward,  until  the  next  conference  should  meet. 
He  entered  the  Kentucky  Conference  in  1834,  and 
was  re-appointed  to  the  Madison  Circuit  with  Will- 
iam B.  Landrum.  His  next  appointment  was  to  the 
Shelby  Circuit,  as  the  colleague  of  Richard  Holding. 
In  1836  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Mount  Ster- 
ling Circuit,  and  of  the  Fleming  Circuit  in  1837.  At 
the  conference  of  1838  he  was  appointed  to  the  Dan- 
ville Circuit,  with  William  D.  Matting,  who  remained 
in  the  work  but  a  short  time,  when  Mr.  Merritt  was 
placed  in  charge,  with  Matthew  N.  Lasley,  who  was 
transferred  from  Pulaski  Coal  Mines,  as  his  colleague. 
In  1839  he  was  sent  to  Cynthiana.  In  1840  we  find 
him  on  the  Paris  Circuit,  one  of  the  most  pleasant 
charges  in  the  conference,  to  which  he  was  returned 
the  year  following.  He  was  stationed  at  Carrollton 
in  1842,  and  in  Louisville,  at  Eighth  Street,  in 
1843-44.  In  1845  he  was  sent  to  Middletown,  and 
in  1846  to  Fourth  Street,  Louisville.  In  1847  he  was 
sent  to  Logan  Circuit  with  the  scholarly  A.  A.  Mor- 
rison as  his  colleague,  and  the  year  following  to 
Middletown.  In  1849  he  was  sent  to  Louisville  Cir- 
cuit, to  which  he  was  re-appointed  in  1850,  but  im- 

31 


362  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

mediately  after  conference  was  transferred  to  the 
Kentucky  Conference  and  stationed  in  Newport.  His 
subsequent  appointments  were:  Maysville,  Simpson- 
ville,  two  years;  Taylorsville,  Simpsonville,  Taylors- 
ville,  Harrodsburg  District,  one  year ;  JDanville,  two 
years;  Lexington,  second  charge;  Harrodsburg,  Per- 
ryville  and  White  Chapel;  Shelbyville  District,  one 
year;  Frankfort,  two  years;  Harrodsburg  District, 
two  years;  Lexington  District,  three  years;  Floyds- 
burg,  then  on  Shelbyville  District,  two  years;  and 
three  years  on  the  Lexington  District,  sinee  which 
time  he  has  sustained  a  supernumerary  relation. 

From  his  entrance  into  the  ministry  Dr.  Merritt 
gave  promise  of  great  usefulness  in  the  Church.  His 
presence  commanding,  and  popular  in  his  address,  he 
was  well  calculated  to  make  friends  in  every  circle  in 
which  he  was  thrown.  Believing  himself  to  be  di- 
vinely called  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  he  pros- 
ecuted the  work  of  the  ministry  with  unswerving 
fidelity  and  zeal,  and  was  instrumental  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  great  good.  Acceptable  as  a  preacher, 
and  highly  gifted  in  exhortation,  his  warm  appeals 
were  listened  to  with  interest,  while  many  were  per- 
suaded to  abandon  a  life  of  sin  and  turn  to  God. 
There  is  not  a  community  in  which  he  has  labored 
but  success  crowned  his  efforts  to  do  good,  and  many 
will  be  the  stars  that  shall  deck  the  crown  of  his 
rejoicing  in  the  last  day. 

Nothing  of  special  interest  occurred  during  the 
second  year  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh's  ministry  in  Cov- 
ington. 

The  memory  of  Bishop  Bascom  was  still  green  in. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  363 

the  hearts  of  the  conference  with  which  he  had  passed 
so  many  pleasant  years.  In  testimony  of  their  high 
appreciation  of  his  memory  and  labors  the  Kentucky 
Conference,  at  the  session  of  1851,  adopted  a  reso- 
lution expressive  of  their  desire  that  "a  suitable 
biography  of  the  bishop  should  be  written,"  and 
respectfully  requested  Bishop  Andrew  to  prepare  it. 
During  his  last  illness  Bishop  Bascom  had  ex- 
pressed the  wish  that  if  his  life  should  be  written  the 
task  should  be  committed  to  his  colleague.  Whether 
Bishop  Andrew  responded  favorably  to  the  action  of 
the  conference  we  are  not  advised.  It  is  certainly  to 
be  regretted  that  he  did  not  perform  the  work.  No 
biographer  could  have  had  a  more  commanding  sub- 
ject. The  life  and  labors  of  such  a  man,  sketched  by 
the  masterly  pencil  of  his  gifted  colleague,  would 
have  made  a  volume  of  rare  merit  and  interest  that 
would  have  found  a  place  in  thousands  of  homes, 
crowding  them  with  recollections  of  one  of  the  great- 
est and  best  men  that  ever  lived.  It  would  have 
fired  the  hearts  of  young  men  to  higher  aims,  as  they 
would  look  upon  the  young  drayman,  toiling  in  his 
daily  task  on  the  wharf  at  Maysville  for  his  bread  and 
for  the  support  of  his  parents,  and  then  behold  him," 
without  educational  advantages,  only  such  as  the 
cabins  of  the  poor,  by  the  aid  of  the  pine-knot  light 
afforded ;  chaplain  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress, 
in  eloquence  the  peer  of  Henry  Clay,  rivaling  in  the 
pulpit  the  gifted  Summerfield,  president  of  Madison 
College,  the  professor  of  Moral  Science  and  Belles-let- 
tres in  Augusta  College,  the  chancellor  of  Transylva- 
nia University,  and  then  elevated  to  the  highest  office 


364  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 

within  the  gift  of  the  Church,  to  which  he  had  devoted 
his  energies  and  his  life. 

The  noble  life  of  Bascom  closed  in  the  home  of 
Dr.  Stevenson. 

Edward  Stevenson  was  the  son  of  Thomas  and  Sa- 
rah Stevenson,  of  whom  we  have  already  made  men- 
tion. He  was  born  in  Mason  County,  Kentucky,  on 
the  3d  of  October,  1797.  Blessed  with  a  mother  re- 
markable for  her  deep  and  ardent  piety,  his  memory 
could  not  date  the  period  when  he  was  first  "con- 
scious of  his  lost  condition  as  a  sinner,  and  his  great 
need  of  a  Savior."  The  warning  voice  of  mercy,  how- 
ever, was  not  heeded  by  him  until  he  had  reached  the 
fifteenth  year  of  his  age.  About  this  time  he  made 
a  profession  of  religion,  and  became  a  member  of  the 
Church.  He  at  once  felt  that  it  was  his  duty  to  call 
sinners  to  repentance,  and  before  he  attained  to  man- 
hood he  received  license  to- preach.  His  first  sermon 
was  preached  in  his  father's  house,  where  a  prayer- 
meeting  had  been  appointed,  to  which  many  persons — 
including  several  of  his  associates — were  attracted  by 
the  recent  conversion  and  earnest  zeal  of  young  Ste- 
venson. "  By  a  singular  circumstance,  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  accustomed  to  participate  in  prayer- 
meetings  were  absent ;  whereupon  an  irreligious  man 
importuned  Edward  to  preach  for  them."  The  oc- 
casion was  an  embarrassing  one.  The  audience  was 
large,  and  among  them  were  his  father  and  mother. 
Believing  that  duty  demanded  that  the  cross  should 
be  borne,  "he  arose,  took  the  Bible  and  hymn-book, 
sang  and  prayed,  and  then  announced  his  text:  'Pre- 
pare to  meet  thy  God ; '  and  preached  with  power  and 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  365 

great  success.  Seven  persons  were  converted  that 
night,  some  of  whom  became  shining  lights  in  the 
Church." 

From  this  period  he  was  recognized  as  a  leader  in 
the  community.  A  young  man  of  fine  personal  ap- 
pearance, soundly  converted  to  God,  divinely  called 
to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  remarkable  for  his  zeal, 
brought  up  in  the  lap  of  Methodism,  a  sweet  singer, 
gifted  in  exhortation  and  prayer,  and  with  a  voice 
soft  and  plaintive,  he  seemed  destined  to  occupy  a 
prominent  place  among  his  brethren. 

Useful  as  he  was  in  the  community  in  which  he 
had  been  brought  up,  feeling  that  his  energies  and 
talents  should  be  devoted  exclusively  to  the  great 
work  to  which  he  was  called,  at  the  conference  of 
1820  he  was  admitted  on  trial,  and  appointed  to  the 
Lexington  Circuit,  with  Samuel  Demint  and  Nathan- 
ael  Harris.  In  1821  he  was  sent  to  the  Greenbrier 
Circuit,  in  the  Kanawha  District,  and  the  following 
year  to  the  Bowling  Green  Circuit,  with  Henry 
Gregg  as  his  colleague.  The  Bowling  Green  Circuit 
at  this  time  included  the  counties  of  Warren  and 
Simpson. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  fine  personal  ap- 
pearance of  Mr.  Stevenson.  He  was  little  less  than 
six  feet  in  height,  and  well  formed.  His  eyes  and 
hair  were  black,  while  the  latter  hung  carelessly  in 
curls  around  his  neck ;  his  step  was  quick  and  elastic ; 
besides,  he  declined  to  adopt  the  costume  of  the  early 
Methodist  pulpit — his  coat  was  a  frock,  of  black  cloth, 
instead  of  the  round-breasted  style.  In  one  portion 
of  his  circuit  exceptions  were  taken  to  his  dress  by 


366  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

some  of  the  old  ladies  of  the  Church,  and  they  kindly 
remonstrated  with  the  young  preacher,  and  endeavored 
to  dissuade  "  him  from  following  the  fashions  of  the 
world."  Yielding  to  their  wishes,  he  replied,  "  Very 
well,  make  me  a  new  suit  to  please  yourselves,  and  I 
will  wear  it " — hardly  expecting  them  to  do  so.  But 
in  his  new  suit  he  soon  appeared,  in  regard  to  which 
he  says :  "  In  a  short  time  I  found  myself  the  owner 
of  an  entire  Summer  suit  of  blue  twilled  cotton,  which 
fitted  me  much  like  the  clothes  of  an  overgrown  boy, 
each  article  having  the  appearance  of  being  made  for 
a  man  a  size  smaller.  The  coat  was  short-waisted, 
rounding  off  from  the  throat  to  the  narrowest  possi- 
ble of  swallow-tails  behind.  The  vest  was  likewise 
short,  and  too  small  to  button ;  while  the  pants  might 
have  had  their  length  increased  six  inches  without 
being  pronounced  too  long.  A  hat  was  also  furnished 
me,  made  of  plaits  of  round  rye-straws,  in  shape  like 
the  stove-pipe  of  the  present  day,  only  higher,  and 
having  no  lining  except  four  pieces  of  tape  across  it, 
to  prevent  it  slipping  down  over  my  ears." 

Thus  clothed,  it  was  only  necessary  to  destroy  his 
"sinful  curls"  to  make  him  an  acceptable  preacher, 
which  was  quickly  performed  by  one  of  the  circle, 
"by  cutting  his  hair  exceedingly  short  on  the  top  of 
his  head,  and  leaving  it  long  around  his  face  and 
neck." 

Appearing  in  this  condition  at  his  next  appoint- 
ment— which  was  at  a  private  house — a  kind  sister 
said  to  him,  "Why,  Brother  Stevenson,  who  has  ruined 

your  hair?"  To  which  he  replied,  "I  let  Sister 

cut  it  off."  Seizing  the  scissors,  she  exclaimed,  "  For 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  367 

mercy's  sake,  let  me  make  it  a  little  more  endurable!" 
and  soon  the  last  curl  was  gone.* 

The  appearance  of  the  preacher  was  by  no  means 
prepossessing.  In  this  strange  dress  he  started  for  a 
camp-meeting,  to  be  held  in  the  Fountain  Head  Cir- 
cuit. Reaching  the  camp-ground,  he  met  "William 
Peter,  the  preacher  in  charge,  who,  with  cold  formal- 
ity, told  him  he  might  sleep  in  the  preachers'  tent, 
and  directed  him  to  a  brother  who  would  provide  for 
his  horse.  His  strange  appearance  produced  an  un- 
favorable impression  on  the  man  to  whom  he  was  re- 
ferred, and  by  whom  he  was  tendered  the  use  of  a 
stable,  with  instructions  to  take  care  of  his  horse  him- 
self. Time  glided  on,  the  last  day  of  the  week  ar- 
rived, and  Mr.  Stevenson  had  not  been  invited  to 
preach,  nor  pray,  nor  even  to  ask  a  blessing  at  any 
table ;  nor  had  a  word  of  welcome  fallen  from  the 
lips  of  any  one,  either  among  the  ministry  or  mem- 
bership. Depressed  in  spirits,  he  resolved  to  leave 
the  ground.  The  unexpected  appearance,  however,  of 
Henry  Grider  and  James  Hines,  from  Bowling  Green, 
at  this  moment,  prevented  his  leaving.  A  hasty  in- 
terview between  Mr.  Grider  and  the  preacher  in  charge 
of  the  meeting,  induced  the  latter  to  invite  Mr.  Ste- 
venson to  occupy  the  stand.  Declining,  at  first,  in 
consequence  of  previous  neglect,  his  objections  were 
overruled;  and  yielding  to  the  persuasions  of  his  two 
friends  from  Bowling  Green,  he  consented  to  preach 
on  the  following  morning — which  was  Sabbath — at  9 
o'clock.  Before  the  hour  arrived,  he  retired  to  the 
silent  grove  to  spend  some  time  in  secret  prayer,  where 

-  Manuscript  Autobiography  of  Rev.  E.  Stevenson,  I).  D. 


368  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

he  remained  until  the  trumpet  announced  the  time 
for  worship.  Approaching  the  encampment,  and  look- 
ing into  the  pulpit,  he  saw  that  it  was  occupied  by 
another  preacher,  about  to  open  the  service.  Unable 
to  comprehend  this  new  phase  of  affairs,  he  was  ap- 
proached by  Mr.  Peter,  who  pleasantly  said  to  him, 
"  We  have  changed  your  hour  for  preaching  from  9 
to  11  o'clock,  when  the  congregation  will  be  largest." 
Again  retiring  to  the  place  of  secret  prayer,  he 
awaited,  on  his  knees,  the  shrill  sound  of  the  trumpet 
announcing  once  more  the  hour  of  worship.  Pressing 
through  the  crowd  he  ascended  the  stand,  and  looked 
around  for  his  brethren  in  the  ministry,  not  one  of 
whom  was  to  be  seen.  Hardy  Cryer  and  James  Gwin, 
with  William  Peter,  and  others,  were  on  the  ground 
somewhere,  but  were  not  visible,  either  to  the  preacher 
or  the  audience. 

The  assembly  was  vast.  The  entire  encampment 
was  filled  with  the  immense  multitudes  that,  from  all 
the  surrounding  country,  had  come  to  the  place  of 
worship.  The  hymn  was  read  in  a  feeble,  tremulous 
voice;  and  the  prayer  that  followed  was  disjointed 
and  incoherent.  The  service  proceeded,  he  announced 
his  text :  "  For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  Christ."  The  introduction  to  the  ser- 
mon was  dull,  and  the  manner  of  the  preacher  con- 
fused. Unable  to  collect  his  thoughts,  he  felt  the 
crimson  mantling  his  cheeks ;  and  losing  the  powers 
of  articulation  and  of  sight,  he  stood  trembling,  and 
held  to  the  desk  for  support.  His  embarrassment  for 
the  moment/was  overwhelming.  Again  he  rallied,  but 
not  in  his  own  strength,  but  trusting  in  Him  who  had 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  369 

said,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world;"  and  his  spirit  was  unchained,  his  vis- 
ion became  clear,  and  his  full  and  mellow  voice  sent 
forth  its  rich  and  plaintive  peals  over  the  vast  assem- 
bly ;  and  "  the  power  of  the  Holy  One "  accompanied 
his  truth.  Peter,  Cryer,  and  Gwin  no  longer  lay  con- 
cealed, but  coming  out  from  their  hiding-places  s£ood 
erect  by  the  side  of  the  young  minister  of  Christ,  en- 
couraging him  by  the  hearty  amens  they  uttered.  The 
congregation,  at  first  careless  and  sportive,  arose  to 
their  feet,  while  those  in  the  rear  crowded  nearer  to 
the  stand.  The  judgment,  its  certainty,  necessity,  and 
the  results  that  will  follow  the  scenes  of  the  last  day, 
were  the  points  brought  in  review  on  that  occasion. 
His  voice,  rising  with  the  intensity  of  his  theme,  was 
ringing  like  the  full  blast  of  a  trumpet  through  that 
crowd  of  ten  thousand  hearers.  As  he  spoke  of  the 
agonies  of  the  lost,  and  urged  the  sinner  to  flee  the 
impending  storm,  groans  and  cries  and  prayers  for 
mercy — like  the  noise  of  many  waters — rent  the  air, 
and  made  the  place  most  terrible.  Then  changing 
his  theme,  he  spoke  of  the  love,  goodness,  and  mercy 
of  God,  until  his  voice  was  lost  amid  the  commingled 
shrieks  of  the  sinner  and  the  triumphant  shouts  of  the 
redeemed.  The  service  closed,  and  many  dated  their 
conviction  and  conversion  from  that  hour.  During  the 
few  remaining  weeks  he  spent  on  the  Bowling  Green 
Circuit  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  prospered  in  his  hands. 
At  the  conference  of  1823  he  Avas  appointed  to  the 
Bowling  Green  and  Russellville  Station,  a  new  charge 
just  formed.  Russellville  was  regarded  as  a  difficult 
appointment  to  fill,  and  had  hitherto  yielded  to  a 


370  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

very  limited  extent  to  the  claims  of  the  Gospel.  As 
early  as  1808  a  small  class  had  been  organized  on  the 
corner  of  Spring  and  Center  Streets,  and  previous  to 
that  period  Methodist  preachers  had  visited  and 
preached  in  the  village ;  but  whatever  influences  had 
been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  community,  the  Church 
exhibited  no  signs  of  prosperity,  and  was  able  to  main- 
tain nothing  more  than  a  feeble  existence.  Mr.  Ste- 
venson received  his  appointment  with  feelings  of  re- 
gret. Subject  at  times  to  deep  mental  depression,  and 
yielding  on  this  occasion  to  its  influence,  his  first  im- 
pulses were  to  decline  the  field  assigned  him,  and  re- 
tire to  the  walks  of  private  life.  Unwilling,  however, 
to  assume  such  a  responsibility,  he  entered  upon  his 
work,  feeling  his  "  insufficiency "  for  the  duties  that 
lay  before  him,  but  earnestly  seeking  help  from  on 
high.  His  first  sermon  in  Russellville  was  tame,  in- 
sipid, and  incoherent — exhibiting  none  of  that  gush 
of  enthusiasm  which  distinguished  his  ministry  in  later 
years.  Retiring  from  the  pulpit  mortified  and  dis- 
couraged, he  resolved  to  quit  the  field,  and  sought  an 
interview  with  Bishop  George,  for  the  purpose  of  com- 
municating to  him  his  intentions.  The  bishop  encour- 
aged him  to  prosecute  his  work  in  the  name  of  his 
divine  Master,  and  not  to  decide  adversely  to  what 
seemed  an  obvious  duty  until  he  had  fully  tested  his 
ability  to  meet  the  responsibility  of  the  position.  With 
words  of  tenderness  the  good  bishop  raised  the  droop- 
ing spirits  of  the  young  evangelist,  and  impressed  him 
with  the  conviction  that  he  dared  not  abandon  his 
post,  however  great  and  numerous  the  difficulties  that 
might  confront  him. 


BISHOP  KA  \ rA  NA  UGH.  371 

Greatly  encouraged  by  the  advice  of  Bishop 
George,  as  well  as  by  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
given,  he  resolved,  with  renewed  effort,  to  re-enter 
the  field  from  which  he  had  well-nigh  been  driven, 
and  with  untiring  energy  to  discharge  the  duties  that 
devolved  upon  him.  "We  accordingly  find  him  in  his 
place  at  his  next  appointment,  but  with  feelings  en- 
tirely different  from  those  under  which  he  had  labored 
two  weeks  before.  Then  he  felt  sad,  gloomy,  and 
hopeless;  but  now  he  expected  success.  He  had 
spent  much  of  the  interval  in  "  study,  meditation,  and 
prayer,"  and,  armed  "  with  the  whole  armor  of  God," 
he  resolved  that  success  should  crown  his  labors.  His 
mission  divine,  he  delivered  his  message  as  in  the 
light  of  eternity.  Man's  guilty  condition  as  a  sinner 
exposed  to  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the  atonement  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  only  hope  of  the  world,  were  the 
themes  he  discussed.  Powerful  in  exhortation,  he 
enforced  the  truths  he  had  so  ably  presented  until 
the  assembly  were  bathed  in  tears,  and  ever  and  anon 
cries  for  mercy  fell  from  troubled  hearts.  The  meet- 
ing was  protracted  through  several  weeks,  and  many 
souls  were  happily  converted  to  God. 

From  this  period  Methodism  became  prominent 
in  Russellville,  not  only  embracing  within  its  com- 
munion many  of  the  most  intelligent  and  influential 
citizens,  but  giving  tone  and  character  to  the  religious 
sentiments  of  other  denominations.  In  1824  Russell- 
ville was  detached  from  Bowling  Green,  and  Mr. 
Stevenson  was  appointed  to  the  station,  which  con- 
tinued to  prosper  under  his  ministry. 

From  this  date  he  took  rank  with  the  ablest  min- 


372  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

isters  in  the  conference,  and  was  appointed  to  the 
most  important  stations  in  Kentucky.  From  Russell- 
ville  we  trace  him  to  Lexington;  thence  to  Frank- 
fort, the  capital  of  the  State;  and  from  there  to 
Shelbyville  and  Brick  Chapel,  to  Maysville,  and  after- 
ward to  Louisville — remaining  for  two  years  in  sev- 
eral of  these  charges.  Wherever  he  labored  he  won 
a  warm  place  in  the  affections  of  the  Church,  and 
was  eminently  successful  in  winning  souls  to  Christ. 
A  severe  attack  of  sickness  in  midsummer,  during 
his  second  year  in  the  city  of  Louisville,  so  prostrated 
him  that  he  was  unable  to  receive  an  appointment  at 
the  conference  of  1833;  but,  restored  to  health  by  a 
year's  rest,  we  find  him,  in  1834,  again  on  the  effect- 
ive roll,  and  stationed  in  Mount  Sterling.  During 
his  pastorate  in  this  station  he  evinced  an  aptitude 
for  religious  controversy  that  he  had  not  previously 
developed. 

Among  the  most  eminent  ministers  of  that  period, 
Alexander  Campbell  was  prominent.  He  was  an  Irish- 
man by  birth,  but  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  age  re- 
moved to  Scotland — the  home  of  his  ancestry — where 
he  completed  his  education  for  the  ministry  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  When  about  twenty-two  years 
of  age  he  emigrated  to  America,  and  was  soon  re- 
garded as  a  young  man  of  more  than  ordinary  prom- 
ise. A  bold  and  fearless  thinker,  he  became  dissatis- 
fied with  the  tenets  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and, 
withdrawing  from  its  fellowship,  he  entered  the  Bap- 
tist communion,  in  which  he  attained  to  eminence  as 
a  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  Naturally  restless,  he  be- 
came dissatisfied  with  some  of  the  views  held  by  the 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGH.  373 

Baptist  Church,  and  in  August,  1823,  in  a  debate  in 
Mason  County,  Ky.,  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  McCalla,  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  openly  avowed  the  doctrine 
of  "  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins."  *  The  Chris- 
tian Baptist,  a  monthly  pamphlet,  was  soon  after  is- 
sued by  him,  in  which  the  same  doctrine  was  ear- 
nestly advocated;  and  in  1830  he  commenced  the 
publication  of  the  Millennial  Harbinger,  another,  pe- 
riodical devoted  to  the  propagation  and  defense  of 
the  same  heresy. 

The  advocacy  of  this  doctrine  rendered  the  sepa- 
ration of  Mr.  Campbell  from  the  Baptist  Church  a 
necessity.  Although  he  agreed  with  them  in  refer- 
ence both  to  the  subjects  and  mode  of  baptism,  yet 
the  views  held  by  each  in  regard  to  the  design  were 
so  different  as  to  admit  of  no  compromise.  It  was, 
moreover,  impossible  for  Mr.  Campbell  to  enter  any 
other  communion.  Evangelical  Christians  every- 
where revolted  at  a  doctrine  which  they  regarded  as 
an  infringement  on  the  plan  of  salvation.  The  re- 
sult, therefore,  was  a  separate  organization,!  styling 
themselves  "Christians,"  or  "Reformers,"  but  known 
under  the  style  and  title  of  Campbellites.  The  Bap- 
tist Church  was  stronger  in  Kentucky  than  any  other 


*In  his  debate  with  McCalla,  p.  137,  he  says:  "He  ap- 
pointed baptism  to  be  to  all  who  believe  the  record  he  has 
given  of  his  Son  a  formal  pledge,  on  his  part,  of  that  believer's 
personal  acquittal  or  pardon,  so  expressive  and  so  significant 
that  when  the  baptized  believer  comes  up  out  of  the  water, 
is  born  of  water,  enters  the  world  a  second  time,  he  enters  it 
as  innocent,  as  clean,  as  unspotted  as  an  angel." 

t  Other  preachers  taught  the  same  doctrine  about  this  time, 
among  whom  Barton  AV.  Stone  was  prominent. 


374  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

denomination.  The  first  planted  upon  its  soil,  it  had 
permeated  every  section  of  the  State.  In  its  ministry 
were  men  of  influence  and  of  learning;  but  under 
the  teachings  of  Mr.  Campbell  many  of  them  turned 
away  from  the  doctrines  in  which  they  had  rejoiced, 
and  openly  disavowed  their  belief  in  the  divine  in- 
fluence in  the  salvation  of  the  sinner,  in  a  divine  cull 
to  the  ministry,  and  taught,  with  him,  that  the  sinner 
can  not  be  pardoned  except  in  baptism. 

The  effect  upon  the  Church  of  such  a  secession 
among  the  ministry  may  easily  be  imagined.  In  every 
portion  of  the  State  Churches  became  disrupted — 
fragments  broke  off — and  in  some  instances  whole 
congregations  followed  the  fortunes  of  Campbellism; 
and  for  a  while  the  very  existence  of  the  Baptist 
Church  in  Kentucky  seemed  imperiled. 

Emboldened  by  their  success,  their  leaders  turned 
their  batteries  against  the  other  evangelical  denom- 
inations. 

Methodism,  from  the  commencement  of  this  dan- 
gerous heresy,  had  boldly  denounced  it.  Coming  in 
contact,  as  it  does,  with  one  of  the  dearest  doctrines 
of  the  Church — the  agency  of  the  Spirit  in  the  salva- 
tion of  the  sinner,  both  in  his  conviction  for  sin  and 
his  conversion  to  God — its  fallacy  was  exposed  in  the 
light  of  revealed  truth.  Threatening,  as  Campbell- 
ism  did,  to  overflow  the  State,  the  Methodist  pulpit 
aided  in  arresting  its  onward  tide,  and  checked  its 
devastating  progress.  Names  that  are  mentioned  in 
the  history  of  Methodism  in  Kentucky  became  im- 
mortal in  this  controversy,  in  the  exposure  of  error 
and  the  defense  of  truth. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  375 

At  the  time  when  Mr.  Stevensou  was  appointed 
to  Mount  Sterling  Campbellism  was  in  the  zenith 
of  its  power.  One  of  the  ablest  and  most  popular 
evangelists  of  that  Church,  beneath  whose  fostering 
care  it  was  nurtured  and  had  flourished,  resided  in 
the  village.  Methodism,  too,  was  influential  in  the 
community,  numbering  two  hundred  white  commu- 
nicants. Hardly  had  Mr.  Stevenson  entered  upon 
his  work  until  Mr.  Campbell  in  person  visited  Mount 
Sterling,  and  with  an  unsparing  hand  dealt  his  heav- 
iest blows  against  the  Methodist  Church.  The  fields 
of  labor  hitherto  occupied  by  Mr.  Stevenson  had 
been  exempt  from  this  controversy,  and  hence  he  had 
not  previously  been  called  upon  to  participate  in  the 
struggle.  But  now  the  scene  was  changed,  and  it 
became  his  duty  to  defend  the  doctrines  he  had 
taught.  Mr.  Campbell  was  regarded  as  the  ablest 
polemic  in  the  West.  Mr.  Stevenson  invited  him  to 
a  discussion  of  the  several  points  at  issue  between 
them,  but  Mr.  Campbell  could  not  spare  the  time  to 
debate.  Unable  to  persuade  Mr.  Campbell  to  an 
oral  discussion,  he  entered  his  own  pulpit,  and  with 
a  master  hand  exhibited  the  errors  and  deformities 
of  Campbellism  with  inexpressible  effect ;  and  then, 
with  a  power  that  language  can  not  describe,  he  por- 
trayed the  plan  of  salvation,  as  revealed  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  adapted,  as  it  is,  to  the  woes  and  wants  of 
a  fallen  world.  Day  after  day,  and  night  after  night, 
he  followed  up  the  charge,  until  complete  victory 
crowned  his  labors,  and  under  his  ministry  many 
were  added  to  the  Church. 

From  Mount  Sterling  he  returned  to  Lexington, 


376  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  from  there  to  Danville  and  Harrodsburg,  remain- 
ing in  each  station  two  years. 

Having  labored  extensively  in  the  northern  and 
central  portions  of  the  State,  at  the  conference  of 
1839  he  was  removed  to  Southern  Kentucky,  and 
stationed  at  Hopkinsville,  and  the  following  year  at 
Russellville,  in  both  of  which  charges  his  ministry 
was  greatly  blessed.  In  1841  he  was  placed  in  charge 
of  Hopkinsville  District — on  which  he  labored  for 
four  years — extending  from  Franklin  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Cumberland,  and  from  Madisonville  to  the 
Tennessee  line.  His  uncompromising  integrity,  his 
fervent  piety,  his  burning  zeal,  his  devotion  to  the 
Church,  and  the  clearness  and  force  with  which  he 
presented  the  plan  of  salvation,  combined  to  qualify 
him  for  the  office  of  presiding  elder.  To  him  the 
position  was  a  new  one,  but  full  of  interest.  He  was 
in  the  full  strength  of  manhood,  with  his  hair  slightly 
interspersed  with  gray  ;  his  voice  was  clear  and  mu- 
sical. His  entrance  upon  the  work  was  hailed  with 
delight.*  The  prominent  stations  he  had  filled,  to- 
gether with  the  great  success  that  had  marked  his 
ministry,  had  not  only  won  for  him  a  cordial  wel- 
come, but  had  greatly  animated  the  hopes  of  the 
Church.  Extraordinary  energy  distinguished  his  en- 
trance upon  this  new  charge,  and  with  commendable 
zeal  he  prosecuted  his  labors  during  the  entire  period 
of  his  office.  Like  a  flame  of  fire  he  passed  through 


*It  was  our  good  fortune  to  be  associated  with  him  the 
first  two  years  he  traveled  this  district — the  first  as  junior 
preacher  on  Elkton  and  Logan  Circuit,  the  second  in  charge  of 
Logan  Circuit.  • 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  377 

his  extensive  field,  preaching  with  all  the  animation 
of  youth  and  the  pathos  of  an  apostle.  If  error  had 
to  be  combated,  in  his  hands  "  the  truth  was  mighty, 
through  God,  to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds." 
To  sinners  he  showed  the  "  exceeding  sinfuluess  of 
sin ;"  to  the  humble  penitent,  the  cross  and  a  forgiv- 
ing Savior;  and  to  the  believer,  the  rewards  of  the 
blessed.  In  the  pulpit,  in  the  altar,  in  the  family  cir- 
cle, wherever  his  services  were  needed,  he  was  ready 
to  work,  and  never  seemed  to  grow  weary.  During 
the  four  years  there  was  a  net  increase  of  more  than 
eleven  hundred  members  in  his  district. 

From  the  Hopkinsville  District  we  follow  him  to 
the  Brook  Street  Station,  in  the  city  of  Louisville, 
where  he  finished  his  work  as  a  pastor,  if  we  may 
except  a  single  year  that  he  spent  as  the  presiding 
elder  on  the  East  Louisville  District,  to  which  he  was 
appointed  in  the  Autumn  of  1853,  and  which  he  filled 
in  connection  with  the  agency  of  the  Book  Depository 
in  Louisville.  At  the  General  Conference  of  1846 
he  was  elected  secretary  of  the  Missionary  Society, 
and  also  assistant  book  agent — positions  he  filled  with 
credit  to  himself  and  with  honor  to  the  Church. 

At  the  expiration  of  his  term  as  missionary  sec- 
retary, he  was  re-elected  assistant  book  agent,  and 
placed  in  charge  of  the  infant  institution  in  the 
West,  located  in  Louisville.  In  1854,  when  the 
Southern  Methodist  Publishing  House  was  located 
by  the  General  Conference  in  the  city  of  Nashville, 
Tennessee,  he  was  elected  as  the  principal  agent. 
Although  he  had  spent  the  prime  of  his  life  in  the 
pastoral  work,  and  consequently  was  not  educated  to 

32 


378  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

habits  of  business,  yet  the  prudence  and  success  with 
which,  in  connection  with  his  associates,  he  conducted 
this  important  interest  of  the  Church,  showed  that, 
in  the  choice  they  had  made,  the  General  Conference 
committed  no  error.  The  only  capital  he  had  with 
which  to  open  the  depository  in  Louisville  was  his 
high  reputation  as  a  man  of  probity  and  his  untiring 
energy.  With  no  other  prestige,  in  an  incredibly 
brief  period  he  established  a  prosperous  trade ;  and 
when,  in  1854,  the  publishing  house  was  transferred 
to  Nashville,  the  house  in  Louisville  contributed 
largely  to  its  capital.  His  management  at  Nashville 
met  with  the  hearty  approval  of  the  Church.  Ever 
true  to  the  interest  confided  to  his  trust,  he  guarded 
with  anxious  care  the  charge  he  had  received.  The 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  this  trying  position  were 
more  than  equal  to  his  waning  strength.  At  the 
General  Conference  of  1858  he  requested  his  brethren 
from  Kentucky  not  to  allow  him  to  be  nominated  for 
re-election,  that  he  was  no  longer  able  to  serve  the 
Church  in  that  capacity. 

Immediately  after  the  General  Conference,  he  was 
offered  the  presidency  of  the  Russellville  Collegiate  In- 
stitute, which  he  accepted.  He  presided  over  this  in- 
stitution with  great  satisfaction  to  the  Church  and 
the  community  in  which  it  is  located  for  nearly  six 
years,  when  he  was  released  by  death. 

He  was  elected  to  the  General  Conference  of  1836 
and  then  again  in  1844;  he  was  also  a  member  of  the 
convention  which  met  in  Louisville  in  1845,  and  of 
the  General  Conference  of  1846,  and  of  every  Gen- 
eral Conference  from  that  time  until  his  death.  He 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  379 

was  twice  married.  Each  wife  was  worthy  the  posi- 
tion she  was  called  to  fill.  The  first  died  in  Harrods- 
burg,  in  1839,  in  the  triumphs  of  a  victorious  faith; 
the  second  in  Russellville,  Kentucky,  February  2, 
1882.  He  died  in  Russellville,  Kentucky,  on  the 
6th  of  July,  1864. 

In  1851  Mr.  Kavanaugh  was  sent  to  Winchester 
and  Ebenezer,  in  Clarke  County,  the  place  of  his 
birth.  The  land  upon  which  Ebenezer  Church  was 
built  was  chiefly  the  gift  of  his  grandfather,  Dr. 
Hinde,  and  the  society  at  that  point  was  organized 
by  his  father.  He  had  relatives,  occupying  the  high- 
est social  position,  scattered  through  the  county,  while 
among  the  people  he  was  a  universal  favorite.  In- 
deed, every  thing  seemed  to  combine  to  render  this  a 
happy  year. 

In  1852  he  was  appointed  to  Versailles,  a  town 
that,  for  beauty  and  culture,  has  but  few  rivals  in  the 
State  of  Kentucky.  When  he  traveled  on  the  Lex- 
ington Circuit,  Versailles  was  an  appointment  in  that 
charge,  and  when  presiding  over  Lexington  District, 
Versailles  was  included  in  that  pleasant  field  of  labor. 
It  was  the  home,  too,  of  Mrs.  Kavanaugh.  Every  body 
knew  him,  and  every  body  loved  him.  Not  only  was 
he  the  favorite  of  his  Church,  but  admiring  hundreds, 
not  connected  with  any  branch  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  waited  upon  his  ministry  and  heard  the 
Gospel  from  his  lips. 

It  was  while  in  this  station  that  the  Hon.  Thomas 
F.  Marshall  perpetrated  on  him  a  piece  of  pleasantry 
that  was  a  source  of  amusement  to  him  as  long  as  he 
lived.  He  was  going  to  market  one  morning,  quite 


380  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

early,  and  passing  a  stable,  he  heard  a  groan,  and 
opening  the  door  beheld  Mr.  Marshall  just  recovering 
from  the  effects  of  an  evening's  dissipation,  his  clothes 
and  hair  all  covered  with  the  hay  on  which  he  had 
slept.  Before  the  bishop  had  time  to  speak  the  ex- 
member  of  Congress  said  to  him,  "Well,  bishop,  you 
and  I  both  resemble  the  Savior;  you,  in  that  you 
have  no  form  nor  comeliness,  and  I  in  that  I  have 
nowhere  to  lay  my  head."  The  bishop  kindly  invited 
him  to  his  house,  and  entertained  him  as  long  as  he 
would  remain. 

The  session  of  the  Kentucky  Conference  for  1853 
was  remarkably  pleasant.  It  met  in  Versailles — the 
home  of  Mr.  Kavanaugh — and  it  was  here  that  Bishop 
Capers  made  a  fruitless  effort  to  rule  him  down  while 
he  was  addressing  the  conference.  The  feeble  health 
of  the  bishop  made  him  restless  and  impatient,  and 
his  habit  was,  when  he  thought  a  speaker  had  occu- 
pied sufficient  time,  to  invite  him  to  sit  down,  which 
in  every  instance  had  been  obeyed.  A  question  of 
importance  was  before  the  body,  and  an  exciting  and 
interesting  discussion  ensued.  Mr.  Kavanaugh  had 
the  floor  and  was  approaching  the  subject  with  meas- 
ured step  when  the  bishop  interrupted  him  with  the 
demand,  "  Brother  Kavanaugh,  you  will  please  take 
your  seat." 

"  I  must  respectfully  decline,"  answered  the  speaker. 

"  But  I  tell  you  to  sit  down,"  said  Bishop  Capers. 

"For  what?"  replied  Mr.  Kavanaugh. 

"You  have  spoken  long  enough,"  was  the  answer. 

"I  prefer  to  be  the  judge  of  that  myself,"  was 
Mr.  Kavauaugh's  prompt  reply. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  381 

"I  command  you  to  take  your  seat/'  said  the 
bishop. 

"Am  I  out  of  order  ?"  asked  the  speaker. 

The  bishop  quite  excitedly  said : 

"  Nobody  said  you  were  out  of  order/' 

"Then/'  calmly  answered  Mr.  Kavanaugh,  with  a 
pleasant  smile,  "  I  will  not  sit  down  until  I  finish 
what  I  intended  to  say." 

"Then,"  replied  Bishop  Capers,  "you  will  pro- 
ceed and  hurry  through,  for  it  will  soon  be  time  for 
dinner." 

"  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  hurrying,"  said  Mr. 
Kavanaugh,  "and  do  not  propose  to  do  so  now." 

Bishop  Capers  was  conquered,  and  with  a  smile  on 
his  benignant  face  said: 

"Well,  take  your  time,  Brother  Kavanaugh." 

"That  is  what  I  was  doing,"  said  Mr.  Kavan- 
augh, "but  you  have  taken  so  much  of  it  that  I  do 
not  know  where  I  left  off,  so  I  must  commence  again 
at  the  beginning." 

The  bishop  did  not  venture  on  a  further  inter- 
ruption. 

The  General  Conference  for  1854  was  to  be  hold 
in  Columbus,  Georgia.  The  delegates  elected  from 
the  Kentucky  Conference  were  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  T. 
N.  Ralston,  J.  C.  Harrison,  L.  D.  Huston,  W.  M. 
Grubbs,  and  B.  T.  Crouch. 

The  reserves  were  J.  G.  Bruce  and  Carlisle  Babbitt. 

At  this  conference  Mr.  Kavanaugh  received  his 
last  appointment  in  the  Kentucky  Conference.  He 
was  returned  to  Versailles. 


382  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  XI. 

FROM  THE  GENERAL   CONFERENCE  OF  1854  TO  THE 
GENERAL  CONFERENCE  OF  1858. 

LATE  in  April,  1854,  quite  a  number  of  the  del- 
egates from  the  Kentucky  and  Louisville  Con- 
ferences to  the  General  Conference,  to  meet  in 
Columbus,  Ga.,  met  by  previous  arrangement  in  the 
city  of  Louisville,  and  embarked  on  a  New  Orleans 
steamer  for  Southland,  en  route  for  Columbus,  Ga. 
At  Smithland  we  exchanged  boats,  taking  a  small 
stern-wheel  boat,  poorly  officered,  plying  between 
Smithlaud  and  Nashville. 

We  reached  the  City  of  Rocks,  after  being  out 
from  Smithland  about  sixty  hours,  living  on  hard- 
tack. We  only  had  time  to  transfer  our  baggage  and 
ourselves  to  the  Chattanooga  Depot  before  the  hour 
for  the  departure  of  the  train. 

Previous  to  leaving  Kentucky  the  subject  of  the 
election  of  bishops,  involving  not  only  the  number  to 
be  elected,  but  the  persons  on  whom  this  distinguished 
honor  might  be  conferred,  was  frequently  canvassed 
by  both  preachers  and  people,  while  between  the  del- 
egates, on  their  way  to  Columbus,  there  was  a  free 
interchange  of  sentiments. 

There  was  no  division  of  opinion  as  to  the  single 
point  that  one  of  the"  new  bishops  ought  to  be  chosen 
from  the  Border,  and  that  if  Kentucky  had  a  preacher 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  383 

who  could  be  elected  the  delegations  from  the  two 
conferences,  the  Kentucky  and  Louisville,  ought  to 
contribute  as  far  as  practicable  to  his  election. 

We  reached  Columbus  in  due  time. 

The  session  was  opened  on  the  1st  day  of  May, 
Bishop  Soule  in  the  chair. 

Upon  reaching  Columbus,  it  was  quite  perceptible 
that  the  attention  of  other  members  of  the  General 
Conference,  besides  those  of  the  Kentucky  and  Lou- 
isville Conferences,  was  fixed  on  Mr.  Kavanaugh  as  a 
suitable  person  to  fill  the  office  of  bishop  in  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Several  days  previous  to  the  election,  when  he  was 
advised  that  it  was  the  wish  of  his  brethren  from 
Kentucky  to  place  him  before  the  Church  as  their 
choice,  while  expressing  his  pleasure  at  the  high  con- 
fidence indicated  by  this  preference,  he  courteously 
declined  their  proffered  assistance,  and  assured  them 
that  he  could  not  consent  to  his  name  coming  before 
the  Church  in  any  such  connection ;  that  he  knew  him- 
self better  than  they  knew  him,  and  was  too  well 
aware  of  his  want  of  qualification  for  such  a  respon- 
sibility, even  if  his  election  was  possible — which  he 
did  not  believe — to  entertain  the  question  for  a  mo- 
ment; and  he  begged  them  to  dismiss  the  subject 
from  their  thoughts.  Their  resolution,  however,  was 
fixed,  and  the  greater  his  demurrer  the  more  deter- 
mined their  purpose  to  adhere  to  him  as  their  choice. 

In  the  midst  of  their  anxiety,  he  was  appointed  to 
preach.  The  evening  was  exceedingly  sultry.  He 
was  serving  on  the  Committee  on  the  Book  Concern, 
and  £n  afternoon  of  close  work  had  been  performed ; 


384  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  he  left  the  committee-room  much  fatigued.  The 
congregation  was  large,  the  majority  of  the  members 
of  the  General  Conference  being  present.  He  walked 
into  the  church  and  down  the  aisle  in  rather  a  slug- 
gish manner,  and  ascended  the  pulpit  at  no  rapid 
gait.  After  the  introductory  services  he  announced 
his  text,  and,  entering  upon  the  investigation  of  his 
subject,  it  soon  became  apparent  to  those  who  knew 
him  that  his  mind  had  refused  to  perform  its  task. 
He  divided  his  subject  into  three  parts,  and,  after 
spending  fully  an  hour  upon  the  first  proposition,  he 
proceeded  to  the  investigation  of  the  second,  handling 
the  laboring  oar  with  great  difficulty.  Finding  him- 
self unable  to  proceed,  wandering  in  every  direction, 
at  the  close  of  half  an  hour  he  closed  the  sermon — his 
brethren  mortified,  and  the  audience  disappointed. 

We  had  heard  him  fail  on  former  occasions,  but 
never  so  signally  as  on  that  memorable  evening;  nor 
was  it  difficult  for  any  one  to  realize  that  he  fell  be- 
low the  standard  where  his  reputation  placed  him. 
Unsatisfactory  as  was  his  effort,  it  nevertheless  con- 
tained much  that  could  have  emanated  only  from  a 
masterly  intellect. 

The  General  Conference  decided  to  elect  three 
additional  bishops;  and  Friday,  the  19th  of  May, 
was  fixed  as  the  time  when  the  election  should  take 
place.  George  Foster  Pierce,  of  Georgia;  John 
Early,  of  Virginia;  and  Hubbard  Hinde  Kavanaugh, 
of  Kentucky,  were  elected. 

George  Foster  Pierce  is  among  the  brightest  lights 
of  the  American  pulpit.  He  was  born  in  Greene 
County,  Georgia,  February  3,  1811.  His  father^  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  385 

Rev.  Lovick  Pierce,  was  at  that  time  the  presiding 
elder  on  the  Oconee  District,  South  Carolina  Confer- 
ence. He  not  only  impressed  upon  the  mind  and 
heart  of  his  son  the  importance  of  religious  truth,  but 
made  him  familiar  from  early  childhood  with  the 
doctrines  and  polity  of  the  Methodist  Church  as  laid 
down  in  the  Book  of  Discipline. 

In  1826,  when  only  fifteen  years  of  age,  in  Athens, 
Georgia,  he  joined  the  Church  around  whose  altars  he 
had  been  brought  up,  and  on  the  fifth  of  October  of 
that  year  he  was  soundly  converted  to  God. 

In  March,  1830,  then  nineteen  years  of  age,  he 
was  licensed  to  preach  in  Eatonton,  Georgia,  by  the 
Rev.  William  Arnold. 

He  was  the  grandson  of  George  Foster,  an  excel- 
lent citizen  of  Georgia,  and  the  nephew  of  the  Hon. 
Thomas  F.  Foster,  one  of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  in 
the  State. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  graduated  with  honor  at 
Franklin  College,  Georgia,  and  at  once  entered  the 
office  of  his  distinguished  uncle  with  the  purpose  of 
studying  law;  but  the  conviction  upon  his  mind  that 
it  was  his  duty  to  bear  the  standard  of  the  cross  to 
the  perishing  sons  and  daughters  of  sin  induced  him 
to  turn  aside  from  a  profession  that  offered  him  wealth 
and  fame,  and  in  1831  we  find  his  name  enrolled 
among  the  preachers  of  the  Georgia  Conference.  His 
first  appointment  was  to  the  Alcovi  Circuit,  in  the 
Milledgeville  District,  as  the  colleague  of  Jeremiah' 
Freeman,  and  in  1832  we  find  him  in  the  elegant 
city  of  Augusta,  as  the  junior  preacher  with  James 
O.  Andrew,  who  was  that  year  elected  bishop,  thus 

33 


386  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

leaving  his  young  colleague  in  charge  of  the  station. 
The  following  year  the  city  of  Savannah  was  the  field 
of  his  conflicts  and  triumphs. 

In  1834  he  was  transferred  to  the  South  Carolina 
Conference,  and  with  W.  M.  Kennedy  and  C.-  "W. 
Martin  was  stationed  in  the  city  of  Charleston.  He 
remained  there  but  a  single  year,  when  he  returned 
to  Georgia  and  was  again  appointed  to  Augusta,  while 
his  gifted  father  had  charge  of  the  district  as  presid- 
ing elder. 

In  1836  he  became  the  leader  of  the  hosts  on  the 
Augusta  District,  where  for  two  years  he  carried  the 
tidings  of  a  Redeemer's  love  to  the  homes  of  the  rich 
and  to  the  cabins  of  the  poor,  to  the  master  and  the 
slave,  having  associated  with  him  in  this  blessed 
work  such  men  as  AVilliam  P.  Arnold,  "Whiteford 
Smith,  John  P.  Duncan,  Isaac  Boring,  and  Walter 
P.  Branham. 

At  the  conference  of  1838  he  was  placed  in  charge 
of  Georgia  Female  College  as  its  president,  over 
which  for  two  years  he  presided  with  distinguished 
honor  to  himself  and  with  blessing  to  the  Church. 
In  1840,  to  place  this  institution  upon  a  firmer  foun- 
dation, he  retired  from  the  presidency  and  became 
the  agent. 

Devoted  to  the  pastoral  work,  in  1841  he  had 
charge  of  the  Church  in  Macon,  and  the  two  years 
following  in  his  much-loved  Augusta.  In  1845  and 
.1846  he  was  the  presiding  elder  on  the  Augusta  Dis- 
trict, from  which,  in  1847,  he  retired,  and  was  sta- 
tioned in  Columbus.  The  following  year  he  became 
the  president  of  Emory  College,  located  at  Oxford, 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  387 

Georgia,  over  which  he  continued  to  preside  until  the 
General  Conference  of  1854,  when  he  was  elevated  to 
the  episcopal  office,  receiving  his  consecration  at  the 
same  altar  where,  a  few  years  before  he  had  minis- 
tered as  a  pastor. 

Since  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  no  man  had  been  elected 
a  bishop  who  brought  to  the  office  talents  of  a  higher 
order  or  more  varied  for  the  responsible  duties  of 
this  position  than  George  Foster  Pierce. 

From  the  time  he  entered  the  ministry  he  gave 
great  promise  of  usefulness.  Whether  upon  the  Alcovi 
Circuit,  where  he  won  his  earliest  trophies  for  his 
Master,  or  in  the  cities  of  Augusta,  Charleston,  and 
Macon,  where  to  listening  hundreds  he  broke  the 
bread  of  life,  or  whether  on  the  Augusta  District, 
where  thousands  hung  in  rapt  silence  on  his  lips,  or 
in  the  cabins  of  the  negro  or  in  the  city  of  Columbus, 
where  he  gathered  his  latest  laurels  as  a  pastor,  or  as 
president  of  the  Female  College  at  Macon,  or  at 
Emory  College  at  Oxford,  everywhere  he  made  full 
proof  of  his  ministry  and  won  souls  to  Christ. 

In  1840  he  made  his  first  appearance  in  a  General 
Conference  and  served  on  the  Committee  on  Cente- 
nary Subscriptions.  The  session  was  held  in  Balti- 
more, where,  by  his  great  modesty,  no  less  than  by 
his  extraordinary  talents,  he  won  golden  opinions. 

In  1844  he  was  again  elected  to  the  General  Con- 
ference, and,  although  bnly  thirty-three  years  of  age, 
was  the  leader  of  the  delegation,  although  that  dele- 
gation was  composed  of  such  men  as  William  J.  Parks, 
Lovick  Pierce,  J.  W.  Glenn,  James  E.  Evans,  and 


388  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

A.  B.  Longstreet.  The  session  Avas  a  protracted  one, 
and  resulted  in  the  disruption  of  the  Church.  His 
speech  on  that  occasion,  in  the  case  of  Bishop  Andrew, 
whom  he  had  known  and  loved  from  his  childhood, 
and  whose  colleague  he  had  been  in  his  youth,  for 
purity  of  thought  and  for  richness  and  beauty  of  style, 
delivered  with  all  the  force  and  power  of  the  true 
orator,  has  perhaps  never  been  excelled. 

From  that  moment  he  became  known  not  only  to 
the  Church,  but  to  the  country  at  large,  as  one  of  the 
first  orators,  as  well  as  one  of  the  ablest  divines,  upon 
the  American  continent. 

It  was  during  the  session  of  this  General  Confer- 
ence that  the  anniversary  of  the  American  Bible 
Society  was  held  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
place  of  its  meeting  was  Rev.  Dr.  Springer's  Church, 
known  as  the  Broadway  Tabernacle.  The  speakers 
on  the  occasion  were  the  most  distinguished  clergy- 
men and  laymen  in  the  North.  Boston,  New  Haven, 
and  Philadelphia  were  represented.  Among  the  lay- 
men who  bore  a  prominent  part  on  that  occasion  was 
Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  then  before  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  an  aspirant  to  the  office  of  Vice-presi- 
dent. Under  the  eloquent  and  thrilling  speeches  the 
crowded  audience  had  been  wrought  up  to  a  state  of 
feeling  beyond  which  it  seemed  impossible  they  could 
be  carried.  Mr.  Pierce  was  the  youngest  speaker, 
and  his  speech  would  close  the  exercises  of  the  even- 
ing. His  youthful  appearance  and  his  slender  form, 
together  with  the  task  of  following  the  distinguished 
speakers  who  had  preceded  him,  at  once  won  upon 
the  sympathy  of  the  vast  audience.  But  when  they 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  389 

listened  for  a  few  moments  to  his  soft  and  pleasant 
voice,  whose  dulcet  strains  in  his  own  sunny  land  had 
so  often  held  thousands  in  rapt  attention,  and  heard 
words  of  burning  eloquence  such  as  they  had  never 
heard  before,  every  face  became  damp  with  tears,  and 
every  heart  was  thrilled  with  joy.  "  For  one  hour," 
said  the  eloquent  Bascom  to  a  friehd,  "he  held  over 
that  polished  and  refined  audience  a  control  such  as  I 
had  never  witnessed  anywhere  before."  His  vener- 
able father  was  present,  and  was  asked  at  the  conclu- 
sion by  Mr.  Kavanaugh  if  he  had  ever  heard  the  like 
before,  to  which  he  replied,  "Yes;  I  hear  George 
frequently" 

It  was  at  the  Louisville  convention  where  we  first 
saw  Mr.  Pierce.  Indeed,  we  had  been  so  charmed 
from  what  we  had  read  of  him  and  heard  from  Dr. 
Bascom  and  others,  that  our  anxiety  to  attend  the  con- 
vention was  more  to  see  and  hear  him  than  for  any 
other  purpose.  We  were  present  at  every  speech  he 
delivered,  and  on  each  occasion  when  he  preached.  We 
will  not  forget  while  we  live  his  earnest  appeal  to  the 
convention  to  protect  the  South  from  the  encroach- 
ments of  fanaticism,  when  he  said,  "  I  beseech  you  to 
interpose  no  let  or  barrier  that  will  hinder  me  from 
kneeling  by  the  bedside  of  the  dying  negro,  that  I 
may  point  his  fading  eyes  to  the  land  of  immortality 
and  to  his  home  beyond  the  grave."  Nor  will  we  ever 
forget  his  sermon  in  Shelby  Street  Church,  on  taking 
up  and  bearing  the  cross,  preached  during  his  stay  in 
Louisville. 

As  a  bishop  for  thirty  years  he  has  been  before 
the  Church  in  labors  abundant,  traveling  extensively, 


390  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

not  only  through  all  the  territory  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  but  often  into  the  Northern 
States,  everywhere  proclaiming  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
offering  hope  to  the  despairing,  salvation  to  the  lost, 
and  life  to  the  dead. 

We  have  heard  him  preach  often,  and  on  occasions 
of  every  kind.  We  have  heard  him  when  his  voice 
was  persuasive  and  soft  as  the  evening  zephyr,  touch- 
ing the  tenderest  sympathies,  and  almost  impercepti- 
bly compelling  resolutions  to  a  better  life.  We  have 
heard  him,  too,  when,  as  bends  the  forest  before  the 
storm,  so  sinners  fell  before  the  mighty  truths  he 
spoke.  We  have  heard  him  tell  of  the  agonies  of  the 
lost  until  their  wailings  seemed  to  fall  upon  our  ears, 
and  have  listened  to  his  descriptions  of  the  forever 
blessed  until  we  could  almost  feel  the  soft  brush  of 
angels'  wings,  and  hear  the  songs  of  the  redeemed  and 
saved. 

He  is  a  faithful  preacher.  The  sermon  he  preached 
in  the  exposition  building  in  Nashville,  in  May,  1875, 
will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  those  who  heard  him. 
Messrs.  Whittle  and  Bliss  had  for  several  weeks  held 
religious  service,  and  while  they  exalted  faith,  they 
entirely  ignored  repentance,  as  well  as  the  doctrine  of 
Christian  assurance.  It  was  Sunday  evening,  and  the 
weather  inclement.  The  announcement  that  Bishop 
Pierce  would  preach  brought  together  a  large  aud- 
ience. He  was  aware  that  the  Gospel  had  been  but 
partially  taught  during  the  meeting,  and  "in  thoughts 
that  breathe  and  words  that  burn"  he  brought  to  the 
front  these  cardinal  truths  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  im- 
bedded them  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  hearers. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  391 

There  are,  however,  occasions,  when  worn  down 
with  protracted  pulpit  labor,  he  fails  to  meet  the  ex- 
pectations of  his  hearers.  An  instance  of  this  kind 
once  occurred  in  Arkansas.  Accompanied  by  his  lit- 
tle, grandson,  a  lad  of  perhaps  twelve  Summers,  he 
was  traveling  through  that  State,  and  preaching  to 
delighted  audiences.  In  a  small  village,  he  had 
preached  with  less  than  his  usual  power.  Returning 
from  Church,  a  couple  of  gentlemen  animadverted 
freely  on  the  preacher  and  the  sermon. 

"He  is  not  the  eloquent  preacher  I  had  hoped  to 
hear,"  said  one  of  them.  "  Nor  did  he  come  up  to 
my  expectations,"  replied  the  other. 

His  little  grandson  had  fallen  some  distance  be- 
hind the  bishop,  and  overheard  what  he  regarded  as 
unjust  criticisms,  and  unable  to  restrain  his  indigna- 
tion, replied :  "  Grandpa  does  not  always  do  his  best 
in  .these  one-horse  towns."  The  gentlemen  accepted 
the  situation,  and  said  nothing  more. 

He  has  entered  life's  "  sere  and  yellow  leaf,"  and 
although  the  rose  is  fading  from  his  cheek,  yet  his 
eye  kindles  with  the  same  luster;  while  the  same  elo- 
quent and  burning  words,  inspired  by  the  same  holy 
zeal,  that  fell  from  his  lips  in  the  long  ago,  still  kin- 
dle new  rapture  in  the  hearts  of  admiring  thousands 
who  are  favored  with  his  ministry. 

"John  Early  was  born  in  Bedford  County,  Vir- 
ginia, January  1,  1786,  and  died  in  the  city  of  Lynch- 
burg,  Virginia,  on  the  morning  of  November  5,  1873; 
aged  eighty-seven  years,  ten  months,  and  four  days. 
He  was  converted  April  22,  1804,  under  the  ministry 
of  the  Rev.  Stith  Mead.  His  parents  were  Baptists, 


392  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

but  he  united  with  the  Methodists,  and  gave  early 
promise  of  his  devotion  to  the  Master's  cause.  '  In 
1806  he  was  licensed  to  preach.  Among  those  who 
received  the  benefit  of  his  first  labors  were  the  slaves 
of  President  Jefferson.  He  began  his  ministry  by 
preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  and  doing  the  duty 
that  lay  next  to  him.' 

"  After  a  few  rounds  on  the  Bedford  Circuit,  under 
the  direction  of  the  presiding  elder,  he  was  recom- 
mended for  the  work  of  the  itinerant  ministry  and 
admitted  on  trial  into  the  Virginia  Conference,  Feb- 
ruary, 1807.  The  conference  embraced  at  that  time 
a  large  portion  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  and 
its  session  was  held  in  New  Berne.  Then  and  there, 
with  sixteen  other  young  men,  John  Early  was  en- 
rolled as  a  Methodist  itinerant  preacher.  In  1809  he 
was  admitted  into  full  connection  into  the  conference 
and  ordained  deacon ;  after  two  years  farther  proba- 
tion he  was  ordained  elder.  His  appointments  were: 
1807,  Cumberland  Circuit,  Richmond  District,  Archi- 
bald Alexander,  John  Early;  1808,  Camden  Circuit, 
Norfolk  District,  Benjamin  Devany,  John  Early; 
1809,  Tar  River  Circuit,  New  Berne  District;  1810, 
Caswell  Circuit,  Raleigh  District;  1811-12,  Greens- 
ville  Circuit,  Meherrin  District.  In  each  of  the  last 
four  appointments  there  were  also  two  preachers,  but 
John  Early 's  name  stands  first,  showing  that  from  the 
date  of  his  deaconate  he  was  put  in  charge  of  work. 

"  Bishop  Asbury  and  Bishop  McKendree  perceived 
his  administrative  ability,  and  in  1813-14  he  appears 
on  the  Minutes  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Meherrin 
District,  reaching  from  Richmond  to  Lynchburg. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  393 

"  In  1815  he  located — a  step  not  uncommon  in  that 
day,  whenever  the  care  of  a  family  came  upon  the 
preacher,  and  one  necessitated  by  the  inadequate  sup- 
port furnished  by  the  Church. 

"  In  1821,  however,  he  reappears  as  presiding  elder 
of  his  old  district,  and  continued  such  for  three  years. 
In  this  field  of  labor  his  zeal  flamed  out  afresh,  and 
was  crowned  with  abundant  fruits.  Great  and  gra- 
cious revivals  succeeded  each  other  on  the  various  cir- 
cuits, and  hundreds  of  souls  were  converted.  He 
describes  it  as  '  a  time  of  unction  generally.'  He  was 
'  like  a  general  with  his  eye  on  the  whole  field,  and 
pushing  the  battle  all  along  the  line/  He  not  only 
wrought  himself,  but  he  energized  other  workers. 
He  formed  five  branches  of  the  Missionary  Society, 
and  projected  four  others,  thus  kindling  the  mission- 
ary spirit  throughout  his  district.  As  a  revelation  of 
his  own  interest  in  and  appreciation  of  the  missionary 
work,  we  quote  the  following  from  his  own  language 
of  that  period :  '  Cold  is  the  heart  that  takes  no  in- 
terest in  the  missionary  cause,  especially  if  it  be  found 
among  the  prophets.  Let  my  right  hand  forget  its 
cunning  if  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem !  Let  my 
tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth  if  I  prefer 
not  Jerusalem  above  my  chief  joy.'  These  words  from 
his  own  pen  reveal  his  spirit,  and  furnish  the  clew  to 
his  after  zeal  and  wonderful  success  in  the  work  of 
the  ministry. 

"On  the  Greensville  Circuit  he  received  five  hun- 
dred members  into  the  Church,  and  at  the  ever-mem- 
orable camp-meeting  held  at  Prospect,  in  Prince  Ed- 
ward County,  Virginia,  it  is  said  one  thousand  persons 


394  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

were  converted.  Weeras,  in  his  'Life  of  Washington/ 
and  who  was  present  at  the  camp-meeting,  makes 
special  mention  of  its  extraordinary  power. 

"From  1824  to  1826,  inclusive,  he  was  conference 
missionary;  in  1827  one  of  three  preachers  on  Bed- 
ford Circuit,  and  in  1828  he  was  left  without  appoint- 
ment, at  his  own  request.  From  1829  to  1832  he  was 
again  at  work  as  presiding  elder.  From  1833  to  1840, 
inclusive,  he  was  agent  for  Randolph  Macon  College. 
He  was  one  of  a  committee,  in  1825,  who  drew  up  a 
report  on  education,  out  of  which  the  college  grew. 
He  was  for  many  years  the  president  of  its  board  of 
trustees. 

"  From  1841  to  1846  he  again  appears  as  presid- 
ing elder  on  the  Lyuchbtirg  and  Petersburg  Districts. 
This  brought  him  down  to  the  first  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  held 
in  Petersburg  in  1846. 

"  In  1812,  six  years  after  his  entrance  into  this 
conference,  he  was  sent  as  one  of  eleven  delegates  to 
the  first  delegated  General  Conference,  which  con- 
vened in  the  city  of  New  York.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  General  Conferences  of  1828-32-36-40-44. 
To  his  practical  wisdom  we  owe  what  has  been  aptly 
termed  *  those  time-saving  and  convenient  institu- 
tions ' — standing  committees. 

"The  first  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  which  convened  in  Peters- 
burg in  1846,  resolved  to  enterprise  a  book  agency. 
The  Northern  Book  Concern  not  having  paid  us  our 
share,  we  were  without  money  to  start  it.  The  de- 
mands of  the  Church  for  our  publications,  however, 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  395 

required  the  enterprise,  and  its  inauguration  required 
a  man  of  superior  tact,  judgment,  and  capacity.  At- 
tention was  at  once  directed  to  the  Rev.  John  Early 
as  the  man  needed,  and  he  was  accordingly  elected. 
He  opened  his  office  in  Richmond,  and  carried  on  the 
work  successfully  until  1854,  when  the  Publishing 
House  was  established  in  Nashville.  From  this  agency 
he  passed  into  the  episcopacy." 

Such  were  the  men  who  were  elevated  to  the  epis- 
copal office  at  the  same  time  with  Mr.  Kavanaugh, 
who  was  not  the  inferior  of  either  of  his  distinguished 
colleagues. 

On  Tuesday,  the  25th  of  May,  the-  ordination  took 
place.  George  F.  Pierce  was  presented  by  his  father, 
Dr.  Lovick  Pierce;  John  Early,  by  Dr.  William  Wi- 
nans ;  and  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh,  by  Dr.  Edward 
Stevenson. 

On  the  Sunday  following  the  election  of  Mr. 
Kavanaugh  he  preached  the  second  time  in  Colum- 
bus. The  audience  was  large,  attracted  to  the  place 
of  worship  by  the  fame  of  the  preacher.  From  the 
commencement  to  the  close  of  the  sermon  the  newly 
elected  bishop  was  at  ease.  His  text  was  Romans 
vi,  23:  "  For  the  wages  of  sin  is  death;  but  the  gift 
of  God  is  eternal  life,  through  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Lord."  We  had  never  seen  him'  more  at  ease  than 
on  this  occasion.  When  he  spoke  of  "death"  eter- 
nal, the  regions  of  the  damned  seemed  exposed,  and, 
standing  on  the  fire-crested  .battlements  of  hell,  he 
pointed  to  the  burning  lake,  in  which  the  lost  were 
writhing  in  agony  and  woe.  Then,  when  he  told  of 
the  "  gift  of  God,"  eternal  life,  the  gates  of  heaven 


396  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

appeared  to  open,  and  all  its  glories  unfolding,  while 
in  our  imagination  songs  of  triumph  falling  from  the 
lips  of  the  redeemed  filled  the  house  with  sweetest 
melody,  and  an  inspiration  akin  to  that  blessed  world 
thrilled  every  heart. 

Rev.  Mr.  Dibrell,  of  Virginia,  was  sitting  by  our 
side;  and  ever  and  anon,  as  the  preacher  ascended 
higher  and  higher,  he  would  touch  us  and  ask,  "  Can 
he  do  that  again?" 

Mrs.  Kavanaugh  had  accompanied  her  husband  to 
Columbus,  and  several  weeks  elapsed  before  his  re- 
turn to  his  home. 

In  Kentucky  his  election  was  hailed  with  glad- 
ness. It  found  an  echo,  not  only  in  the  Church  of 
which  he  was  a  member,  but  among  all  denomina- 
tions of  Christian  people,  while  the  secular  press 
throughout  the  State  expressed  the  gratification  of 
those  who  had  known  him  long  and  well. 

The  Western  Recorder,  a  Baptist  paper,  said  of  him : 

"This  able  and  eloquent  Methodist  minister,  so 
well  known  and  so  much  beloved  and  admired  in 
Kentucky,  has  been  elected  and  consecrated  bishop  in 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  If  such  an 
office  can  be  filled  with  divine  acceptance,  and  for  the 
advancement  of  vital  godliness,  we  confidently  predict 
it  will  be  so  filled  by  Bishop  Kavanaugh. 

"  We  have  been  accustomed  to  hear  him  preach 
from  our  boyhood;  and  few  men  have  we  ever  heard 
with  so  much  pleasure  and  profit.  We  have  always 
regarded  him  as  the  strongest  man  in  the  Methodist 
pulpit  in  Kentucky,  not  excepting  Bishop  Bascom, 
who,  out  of  the  pulpit,  as  an  orator  sui  generis,  we 


BISHOP  K A  VAN AUGH.  397 

admire  above  all  men  we  ever  heard  or  whose  ora- 
tions we  ever  read.  Bishop  Kavanaugh  is  a  Gospel 
preacher.  Christ  and  his  cross  are  prominent  in  all 
his  sermons.  He  is  a  man  of  less  sectarian  bigotry 
than  most  of  his  brethren;  indeed,  he  is  always  kind 
and  courteous  in  his  intercourse  with  ministers  and 
individuals  of  other  persuasions.  He  will  elevate  and 
adorn  his  new  office." 

On  his  return  to  Kentucky  he  was  greeted  every- 
where with  a  cordiality  that  would  have  taxed  the 
modesty  of  any  sensitive  man. 

In  the  plan  of  episcopal  visitation  there  were  four 
conferences  assigned  Bishop  Kavanaugh — the  Mis- 
souri, St.  Louis,  Indian  Mission,  and  Wachita. 

The  Missouri  Conference,  the  first  he  attended, 
was  to  be  held  in  Brunswick,  Mo. — the  time,  Octo- 
ber llth.  On  his  way  to  Brunswick  he  stopped  in 
St.  Louis,  with  his  brother,  Rev.  B.  T.  Kavanaugh, 
where  he  spent  a  week,  preaching  several  times  dur- 
ing his  stay.  He  was  in  the  maturity  of  his  man- 
hood, full  of  life,  full  of  health,  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  power.  Many  persons  called  to  see  him, 
and  all  left  charmed  with  his  fine  social  qualities  and 
extraordinary  gifts. 

He  reached  Brunswick  in  good  time.  Presiding 
over  an  annual  conference  was  to  him  something  new, 
and  not  without  its  embarrassments.  He,  however, 
performed  the  duties  of  chairman,  if  not  always  as  a 
strict  parliamentarian,  yet  with  a  reference  to  what 
was  right. 

In  the  stationing  room  he  was  distinguished  for 
his  tenderness,  and  had  a  proper  regard,  on  one  hand, 


398  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

for  the  wants  and  demands  of  the   Churcn,  and,  on 
the  other,  for  the  preachers  and  their  families. 

After  the  close  of  the  conference  the  St.  Louis 
Christian  Advocate  said  of  him :  "  This  was  Bishop 
Kavanaugh's  first  conference.  He  acquitted  himself 
with  credit  to  the  Church  and  great  satisfaction  to 
the  conference.  His  pulpit  labors  were  particularly 
happy  and  successful ;  while  as  a  Christian  gentle- 
man, a  faithful  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  and  a  presid- 
ing officer,  he  left  the  odor  of  a  good  name." 

The  St.  Louis  .Conference  was  held  in  Jefferson 
City,  commencing  October  25th,  where  both  the 
preachers  and  the  people  were  delighted  with  him. 

From  Jefferson  City  he  went  to  the  Cherokee 
Nation,  to  attend  the  Indian  Mission  Conference,  to 
be  held  at  Riley's  Chapel,  November  16th.  All  along 
the  route  he  preached  to  the  people,  leaving  behind 
him  everywhere  an  impression  for  good ;  and  from 
thence  to  the  Wachita  Conference,  December  6th,  at 
"Washington,  Ark.,  receiving  at  each  place  the  unqual- 
ified indorsement  of  his  brethren. 

Mrs.  Kavanaugh  accompanied  him  on  this  episco- 
pal tour ;  and  by  the  suavity  of  her  manners,  her  fine 
conversational  powers,  and  her  love  and  zeal  for  the 
Church,  contributed  much  to  the  success  of  her 
husband. 

He  had  hitherto  been  confined  in  his  ministerial 
labors  to  a  circumscribed  field,  but  now  his  parish  is 
only  bounded  by  the  limits  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  South,  extending  from  the  Chesapeake 
Bay  to  the  city  of.  San  Francisco,  and  from  the  or- 
ange groves  of  Florida  to  the  snow-capped  mountains 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  399 

of  Montana.  His  childhood,  his  youth,  his  early  and 
mature  manhood,  together  with  his  labors,  whether  in 
rural  places  or  in  cities  or  as  presiding  elder,  have 
already  passed  in  review  before  us.  He  has  been 
elevated  to  the  highest  office  within  the  gift  of 
the  Church,  and  whether  he  will  meet  the  demands 
and-  expectations  of  his  brethren  is  yet  to  be  deter- 
mined. 

He  has  entered  upon  his  episcopal  work,  and  the 
annual  conferences  he  has  attended  plainly  indicate 
that  no  mistake  was  made  in  the  preference  expressed 
by  the  General  Conference. 

In  1855  he  was  assigned  to  the  Tennessee,  Mem- 
phis, Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  Conferences. 

In  this  tour  Bishop  Soule  was  associated  with  him, 
although  unable  to  perform  episcopal  labor. 

The  Tennessee  Conference  met  in  the  city  of  Nash- 
ville October  10th,  and  after  a  session  of  eight  days 
adjourned.  Bishop  JCavanaugh  displayed  as  president 
much  patience  and  Christian  meekness,  and  favor- 
ably impressed  the  members  of  the  conference  and 
spectators. 

The  Memphis  Conference  was  appointed  for  Octo- 
ber 31st,  but  in  consequence  of  sickness  in  the  city 
of  Memphis  it  was  postponed  to  the  14th  of  Novem- 
ber. The  session  was  "  a  powerful  and  harmonious 
one."  The  editor  of  the  Memphis  Advocate  says: 
"The  impression  produced  by  Bishop  Kavanaugh  on 
the  conference,  the  Church,  and  the  community  will 
tell  for  the  interests  of  Methodism  for  a  long  time  to 
come."  His  preaching  while  in  Memphis  left  a  good 
impression. 


400  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

• 

The  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  Conferences  were 
delighted  with  Bishop  Kavanaugh.  His  labors  were 
not  confined  to  the  older  conferences.  California 
shared  largely  in  the  benefits  of  his  ministry.  His  first 
visit  to  the  Pacific  coast  was  made  in  1856.  In  the 
Summer  of  that  year,  while  in  San  Francisco,  the  Cali- 
fornia Christian  Advocate,  published  in  that  city,  says  : 

"Bishop  Kavanaugh,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  who  has  been  spending  some  months 
on  this  coast,  passed  the  last  Sabbath  in  this  city. 
He  has  now  spent  two  Sabbaths  in  San  Francisco, 
and  in  each  instance  has  occupied  the  pulpits  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Churches.  His  discourses  have 
been  marked  by  purity  of  sentiment,  felicity  of  ex- 
pression, beauty  and  force  of  illustration,  and  a  most 
refreshing  unction.  His  claim  to  the  apostolical  suc- 
cession is  valid,  and  his  labors  among  us  have  height- 
ened our  estimate  of  '  Christianity  in  earnest/  as  a 
divinely  instituted  agency  for  the  saving  of  men. 
He  is  doing  the  work  of  an  evangelist  in  the  State ; 
everywhere  diifusing  the  savor  of  a  kindly  Christian 
influence,  tending  to  the  harmony  and  consequent 
efficiency  of  Methodism  in  the  land." 

While  in  California  he  was  not  idle.  He  traveled 
extensively  and  preached  constantly;  not  only  in  the 
towns  and  cities,  but  in  rural  districts  his  voice  was 
heard  in  thunder  tones  calling  sinners  to  repentance. 
He  attended  several  camp-meetings,  one  of  which  was 
near  Vallicita,  where  the  camps  were  rudely  con- 
structed and  scarcely  covered  at  all,  but  where  the 
presence  and  power  of  God  were  manifested  in  the 
awakening  and  conversion  of  souls. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  401 

Bishop  Kavanaugh,  from  his  early  ministry,  had 
been  accustomed  to  camp-meetings.  In  the  primeval 
forests  of  his  native  State  camp-meetings  had  been 
held,  and  much  of  his  ministry  had  been  given  to 
these  occasions,  and  in  California  he  was  perfectly  at 
home  in  the  rude  tents  pitched  in  the  grove.  Here 
he  could  preach  on  his  favorite  themes — the  character 
and  attributes  of  God,  the  depravity  of  man,  the 
atonement,  justification  by  faith,  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit,  and  free  grace  in  contradistinction  to  the  Cal- 
vinistic  theory  of  election.  Amid  its  hills  and  valleys 
he  could  offer  hope  and  happiness  and  heaven,  and 
riches  more  enduring  than  its  mines  contained.  His 
ministry  in  California  was  greatly  blessed.  In  1857 
his  work  included  the  Arkansas  and  Texas  Confer- 
ences. He  made  the  tour  overland  in  his  own  barouche, 
driven  by  Charlie  Milward,  his  relative,  with  Howard 
Henderson  as  his  companion,  who  gives  the  following 
account : 

"The  Arkansas  Conference  met  at  Jacksenport, 
then  a  struggling  frontier  village,  where  primitive 
simplicity  had  residence  and  pioneer  hospitality  hung 
its  latch-string,  like  the  Percys  of  Northumberland, 
their  banners,  on  the  outer  walls." 

On  Sunday  the  bishop  preached  an  able  sermon, 
two  hours  in  length,  in  an  immense  cotton-shed,  in 
which  "  he  developed  the  whole  plan  of  salvation  in 
a  close,  analytical,  and  argumentative  way,  very  satis- 
factory to  dogmatists  and  polemicists,  but  neither 
with  graphic,  pathetic,  nor  rhetorical  powers  made  an 
impression." 

On  Tuesday  evening  following  he  preached  again, 
34 


402  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

and  almost  from  the  first  sentence  captured  every 
heart,  continuing  to  ascend  in  a  series  of  thrilling 
climaxes,  piling  Chimborazian  peaks  upon  Himalayan 
heights,  Apennines  upon  Alps,  until  it  seemed  as  if  he 
might  have  pushed  ajar  the  gates  of  glory.  His 
answer  to  the  inquiry,  'Who  is  God?'  could  scarcely 
be  excelled  by  an  archangel ic  Apollos.  He  portrayed 
the  Almighty  as  sublime  in  an  infinite  solitude;  then 
as  creating  the  morning  stars  and  the  sons  of  the 
morning  to  make  a  mighty  orchestra  and  choir  with 
which  to  celebrate  the  stupendous  work  of  creation. 
The  Almighty  girded  himself  for  the  task  and  rolled 
shining  systems,  rising  and  setting  constellations,  phos- 
phorescent stars  and  incandescent  comets  from  his 
hand  until  the  darkness  of  infinite  space  glowed  with 
suns,  plowing  furrows  of  light  from  flashing  plow- 
shares through  a  wilderness  of  night.  Man  came 
fresh  from  his  molding  hand,  and  paradise  grew  ver- 
dant and  flowering  as  a  divine  breath  of  beauty  blew 
over  the  undulating  landscape.  Eve,  blushing  in 
bridal  loveliness,  stood  by  the  side  of  the  lord  of 
Eden.  Then  came  a  grand  description  of  the  fall,  the 
promise,  and  its  realization  in  the  cradle,  cross,  and 
crown  of  Christ;  old  mother  earth  rolled  in  the  wild 
delirium  of  its  latter  end,  and  earth  and  ocean  became 
prolific  in  resurrection  power,  as  the  trumpet  of  the 
archangel  pealed  its  waking  thunders  through  the 
grim  caverns  and  catacombs  of  the  dead.  The  ban- 
ners of  heaven  were  unfurled,  the  seraphic  and  cher- 
ubic choirs  were  marshaled,  and  the  Captain  of 
salvation,  charioted  on  the  clouds,  and  attended  by 
celestial  cohorts,  and  the  minstrelsy  of  harps  and 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  403 

harmonized  halleluiahs  concerted  the  mighty  sym- 
phony. From  star  to  star  spread  the  final  conflagra- 
tion, lighted  by  the  incendiary  suns,  until  the  red 
light  of  judgment-day  glowered  and  made  all  space 
crimson  with  the  glare  of  penal  fires;  hurtling  thun- 
ders rolled  and  roared,  and  forked  and  flashing  light- 
nings '  painted  hell  on  the  sky.'  The  risen  saints 
joined  the  convoy ;  the  wicked  were  doomed  and  went 
howling  down  to  hell,  scourged  to  their  dungeon  by 
scorpion  stings  swung  by  avenging  angels.  The 
pearly  gates  of  heaven  swung  back  on  golden  hinges; 
the  plains  of  light  stood  thickly  ranked  with  the  deep 
files  of  the  triumphant  Church ;  Israel  chimed  the 
song  of  Moses,  and  concentric  circles  of  glorified  im- 
mortals, redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  chanted 
with  seven-fold  thunder  of  praise  and  adulation  the 
anthem,  '  Worthy  is  the  lamb  that  was  slain.'  The 
building  seemed  to  tremble  as  if  shouldered  and 
shaken  by  an  earthquake,  as  the  glowing  periods 
leaped  in  living  language  from  the  lissom  lips  of  the 
inspired  preacher. 

"At  this  remote  day  it  seems  as  though  my  pencil 
would  melt  did  I  attempt  to  drive  it  to  the  task  of 
writing  the  ardent  climaxes  and  peroration,  the  great- 
est piece  of  eloquence  I  ever  heard  breathed  in  words. 
I  have  never  since,  from  any  man  in  Senate,  on  hust- 
ings, on  platform,  or  in  pulpit,  heard  such  oratory. 
It  was  more  than  Miltonic  —  it  was  angelic.  The 
bishop  never  transcended  this  effort.  The  feeling  was 
too  intense  for  utterance;  all  were  silent  and  every 
person  seemed  statuesque  before  this  Niagara  of  elo- 
quence. The  pent-up  emotions  of  the  crowded  con- 


404  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

gregation  found  vent  in  song  which  rolled  iii  ocean 
surges.  I  would  travel  five  hundred  miles  to  hear 
the  like  again.  And  when  the  good  man  returned  to 
his  room  he  seemed  as  simple  as  a  child,  and  perfectly 
unconscious  of  the  mighty  spell  with  which  he  had 
entranced  his  hearers.  I  have  heard  the  bishop  often 
since,  when  he  delighted  vast  congregations,  but  such 
an  effort  can  scarcely  be  possible  to  a  man  more  than 
once  in  a  life-time.  I  saw  him  bend  the  knee,  and 
as  he  prayed  I  sat  in  silent  awe  as  with  mental  peti- 
tions he  claimed  and  caught  the  ear  of  God.  I  would 
not  at  that  moment  have  been  much  surprised  to 
have  seen  the  flaming  chariot  and  fiery  steeds  that 
alighted  at  Elijah's  feet  come  sweeping  down  to  claim 
the  great  preacher  as  a  passenger." 

From  Jacksonport  he  attended  the  East  Texas 
Conference,  which  met  at  Rusk.  J.  M.  Binkley  was 
then  a  young  man,  just  entering  upon  the  labors  of 
an  itinerant  preacher.  He  had  never  seen  a  bishop 
until  he  looked  upon  Bishop  Kavanaugh.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  he  was  charmed  with  him  at  a  single 
glance.  As  he  drew  closer,  and  beheld  him  so  gentle 
in  the  chair,  so  pleasant  in  conversation,  so  accessible 
to  the  humblest  preacher,  his  heart  was  completely 
won.  He  dined  at  Binkley's  conference  home.  At 
the  table  he  was  the  center  of  attraction. 

Addressing  his  conversation  to  two  young  preach- 
ers who  were  present,  he  said : 

"  Well,  my  young  brethren,  are  you  here  to  take 
work  ?'? 

"  Yes,"  was  the  prompt  reply. 

"Where  are  you  going?"  he  asked. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  405 

"  We  do  not  know/'  answered  one  of  them. 

"Perhaps,"  said  the  bishop,  "you  are  like  a  young 
man  in  Arkansas,  who,  when  his  appointment  was 
read  out,  rose  up  and  thanked  God  that  there  was 
any  place  for  him." 

He  gave  them  work.  Mr.  Binkley's  circuit  em- 
braced twenty-three  preaching  places,  and  that  of  his 
friend  eighteen. 

His  first  appearance  in  the  pulpit  at  this  confer- 
ence was  to  conclude  the  service  at  the  close  of  a 
funeral  sermon.  The  exhortation  "  was  powerful, 
grand,  sublime,"  bearing  the  audience  away  to  "fairer 
worlds  on  high." 

Thursday,  the  25th  of  November,  was  Thanksgiv- 
ing-day, appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  by  the  governor  of  Texas.  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  preached.  His  text  was  Psalm  Ixv,  9-11 : 
"Thou  visitest  the  earth,  and  waterest  it:  thou 
greatly  enrichest  it  with  the  river  of  God,  which  is 
full  of  water:  thou  preparest  them  corn,  when  thou 
hast  so  provided  for  it.  Thou  waterest  the  ridges 
thereof  abundantly :  thou  settlest  the  furrows  thereof: 
thou  makest  it  soft  with  showers:  thou  blessest  the 
springing  thereof." 

"This,"  writes  Mr.  Binkley,  "was  the  most  pow- 
erful and  overwhelming  sermon  I  ever  heard.  He 
carried  all  with  him;  nor  have  I  ever  on  any  other 
occasion  witnessed  such  an  effect  as  was  at  that  time 
produced.  The  audience  were  completely  overcome 
by  a  power  that  was  more  than  human.  Some 
laughed,  others  shouted  or  wept,  while  many  rose  to 
their  feet,  and  some  fell  as  dead  men  fall  in  battle." 


406  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

He  adds :  "  I  was  watching  my  presiding  elder,  who 
was  a  strong  man  every  way.  For  some  time  he  was 
calm,  and  seemed  resolved  not  to  yield  to  the  tide 
that  was  sweeping  over  the  assembly;  but  unable  to 
hold  out  longer,  he,  too,  yielded,  and  praised  God 
aloud.  Twenty-seven  years  have  come  and  gone  since 
then,  but  never  have  I  heard  that  sermon  surpassed 
for  its  grand  thoughts,  its  unction,  and  its  power. 

"  In  1881  he  was  with  us  at  Greenville,  Texas, 
for  the  last  time,  and  preached  on  Sunday,  at  eleven 
o'clock.  His  text  was  John  i,  14:  'And  the  Word 
was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld 
his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the 
Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth.'  For  an  hour  and 
twenty  minutes  the  'old  man  eloquent'  held  spell- 
bound the  vast  assembly — his  imagination  vivid,  his 
voice  clear,  his  strength  unimpaired.  It  was  good  to 
be  there.  His  peroration  was  thrilling.  He  lifted 
us  all  in  fancy  to  the  fadeless  glories  of  the  heavenly 
world,  and  concluded  by  exclaiming,  'When  I  reach 
heaven  I  will  shout,  Alleluia.'" 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  407 


xil. 

FROM  THE    GENERAL    CONFERENCE   OF  1858    TO   THE 
GENERAL  CONFERENCE  OF  1870. 

THE  General  Conference  of  1858  met  in  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee.  During  the  session  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  was  domiciled  in  the  pleasant  family  of 
William  K.  McCallister,  by  whom  he  has  always 
been  held  in  kind  remembrance. 

In  referring  to  the  bishop  as  a  preacher  on  that 
occasion,  the  Rev.  Josephus  Anderson,  D.  D.,  writes: 

"  In  1858  the  first  Sunday  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence found  several  delegates  somewhat  hesitating  about 
where  to  attend  public  worship,  so  many  great  men 
preaching  in  the  city.  I  decided  to  hear  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh, but  my  friend,  Rev.  S.  P.  Richardson,  said  I 
had  made  a  mistake.  He  thought  the  bishop  could 
not  preach.  He  formed  his  opinion  from  the  bishop's 
looks,  and  ridiculed  the  idea  that  such  a  looking  man 
could  succeed  in  the  pulpit.  But  I  went,  and  when 
I  returned  and  reported  what  a  grand  sermon  I  had 
heard,  my  colleague  said,  '  O,  Anderson !  I  know  how 
it  was.  That  man  wound  up  with  a  talk  about 
heaven,  which  made  you  feel  good,  and  you  thought 
it  a  great  sermon.  But  he  can  't  preach.'  The  next 
Sunday,  Brother  Richardson  was  induced  to  hear  the 
bishop,  and  he  came  back  filled  with  wonder  and  en- 
thusiasm. Bishop  Kavanaugh  completely  captured 


408  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

him.  He  thought  his  sermon  one  of  the  grandest 
displays  of  eloquence  to  which  he  ever  listened.  He 
was  indeed  sublime  in  his  best  efforts.  His  mind 
arose  with  the  sweep  of  an  eagle's  wing.  In  tower- 
ing majesty  he  soared  aloft,  and  bore  his  hearers  into 
the  dazzling  heights  of  sunny  radiance,  far  away  from 
the  range  of  common  thought.  But  he  was  great  in 
goodness,  in  transparent  simplicity  of  pure  goodness. 
Where  is  his  enemy?  Who  ever  heard  a  word  against 
him?  And  yet  he  was  brave  and  true.  Thanks  be 
unto  God  that  he  lived  in  my  time,  and  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  his  friendship." 

The  Kentucky  Conference  for  this  year  met  in 
Millersburg,  Kentucky,  commencing  September  1st. 
Since  his  election  Bishop  Kavanaugh  had  not  pre- 
sided over  the  conference  of  which  he  had  been  a 
member.  His  presence  among  his  old  comrades  was 
hailed  with  pleasure,  and  never,  perhaps,  had  he  felt 
more  perfectly  at  home.  The  business  was  dispatched 
with  ease,  and  every^  one  regarded  him  as  a  brother 
and  a  friend.  In  the  pulpit  he  measured  up  to  his 
best  efforts  of  former  years,  while  in  the  social  circle 
he  had  lost  none  of  that  affability  for  which  he  had 
always  been  distinguished. 

From  the  Kentucky  Conference  he  went  to  West- 
ern Virginia,  and  from  thence  to  the  Louisville,  where 
the  same  welcome  awaited  him.  If  in  the  chair  he 
did  not  excel  as  a  presiding  officer,  he  made  up  the 
difference  by  the  suavity  of  his  manners,  and  his  gen- 
tle and  kind  consideration  of  the  members  of  the 
body. 

He    attended    the  Virginia   Conference,   held    in 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  409 

Portsmouth,  and  was  perfectly  charmed  with  the 
members,  and  afterwards  said  of  them,  "  they  are  all 
good  debaters;"  and  from  thence  to  North  Carolina, 
which  closed  his  tour,  preaching  everywhere  to  the 
delight  and  profit  of  both  preachers  and  people. 

In  1859  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  sick  a  great  por- 
tion of  the  year.  He  only  attended  the  Georgia,  the 
Alabama,  and  the  Florida  Conferences,  and  was  able 
to  preach  but  little.  His  health  being  restored  the 
following  year,  we  find  him  presiding  at  the  Missouri, 
the  St.  Louis,  Kansas  Mission,  Arkansas,  and  Indian 
Mission  Conferences,  and  preaching  with  his  accus- 
tomed frequency  and  power. 

The  year  1861  will  long  be  memorable  for  the  in- 
auguration of  the  civil  war  that  drenched  our  land 
with  blood,  spreading  ruin  throughout  the  country, 
desolating  homes,  making  thousands  of  widows  and  or- 
phans, and  maiming  hundreds  of  our  fellow-citizens. 

From  the  inauguration  of  President  Lincoln  the 
signs  looked  to  war  between  the  two  sections  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  The  army  and  navy 
establishments  were  ominously  busy.  President  Lin- 
coln, although  silent  sfs  to  his  policy,  yet  was  sending 
war  steamers  with  men  and  provisions  South.  Some 
of  the  Southern  States  had  already  seceded.  In  the 
meantime  provisions  and  communications  with  the 
government  at  Washington  had  been  cut  off  from 
Fort  Sumter. 

On  the  8th  of  April,  General  Beauregard,  from 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  telegraphed  L.  P.  Walker, 
secretary  of  war,  that  "  an  authorized  messenger  from 
President  Lincoln  had  just  informed  Governor  Pickens 

35 


410  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  myself  (himself)  that  provisions  will  be  sent  to 
Fort  Sumter  peaceably,  or  otherwise  by  force."  Upon 
which  the  secretary  of  war  instructed  General  Beau- 
regard  to  demand  the  evacuation  of  the  fort.  On  the 
llth  the  demand  was  made. 

Major  Anderson,  who  was  in  command  of  Fort 
Sumter,  declined  compliance. 

On  the  morning  of  April  12th,  at  4  o'clock,  the 
batteries  of  Sullivan's  Island,  Man's  Island,  and  other 
points  were  opened  on  Fort  Sumter,  while  Fort  Sum- 
ter returned  the  fire.  On  the  13th,  at  1.30  o'clock, 
the  flag  of  the  Confederate  States  was  floating  over 
the  walls  of  Fort  Sumter. 

The  excitement  was  not  only  intense  throughout 
the  South,  but  the  entire  country  was  aroused,  and 
indications  of  a  long  and  bloody  war  were  apparent. 

On  Monday,  the  15th  of  April,  the  bishops  met  in 
the  city  of  Nashville,  and  arranged  the  plan  of  epis- 
copal visitation  for  the  current  year. 

The  episcopal  district  assigned  to  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh  included  the  Wachita,  Memphis,  Georgia,  and 
Florida  Conferences,  but  owing  to  the  distracted  state 
of  the  country  he  could  not  attend  either  of  these. 
He  confined  his  labors  this  year  to  Kentucky,  while 
Bishop  Paine,  who  was  to  have  presided  at  the  Ken- 
tucky and  Louisville  Conferences,  remained  in  the 
South. 

The  Kentucky  Conference  met  in  Paris,  October 
1st.  Colonel  Rousseau  had  organized  in  Indiana  a 
regiment  of  soldiers  for  the  federal  army,  and  Ken- 
tucky had  been  invaded.  The  entire  State  was  astir 
with  excitement,  and  men  scarcely  knew  whom  to 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH,  411 

trust.  The  sentiment  of  the  commonwealth  was  di- 
vided, the  feeling  in  favor  of  the  South  predominat- 
ing, and  the  members  of  the  Kentucky  Conference 
were  far  from  being  in  harmony. 

While  Bishop  Kavanaugh  took  no  active  part  in 
the  controversy,  his  sympathies  were  with  the  South. 
The  conference  session  was  an  exciting  one.  The 
bishop,  however,  presided  so  impartially,  not  only  in 
the  chair,  but  in  the  stationing-room,  that  no  one,  not 
even  a  partisan,  could  complain  of  any  want  of 
fairness. 

On  one  occasion  a  member  of  the  body,  well 
known  for  his  want  of  energy,  was  addressing  the 
conference  in  a  very  sluggish  manner,  when  the 
bishop,  anxious  to  get  the  question  fully  before  the 
conference,  said,  "  Brother,  come  to  the  point."  "  I 
am  coming  to  it,  bishop,"  said  the  preacher;  "but, 
like  yourself,  I  make  haste  slowly."  No  one  enjoyed 
the  reply  more  than  Bishop  Kavanaugh. 

The  session  of  the  Louisville  Conference,  which 
met  in  the  city  of  Louisville  a  few  weeks  later,  was 
a  still  more  exciting  one.  Nearly  one-half  the  body 
was  inside  the  Confederate  lines,  and  could  not  be 
present.  Armed  soldiers  in  large  nu'^ers,  together 
with  epauletted  gentlemen,  were  in  constant  attend- 
ance, ready  to  avail  themselves  of  the  least  excuse 
to  create  disturbance.  To  carry  the  business  of  the 
conference  through  safely,  required  great  prudence, 
combined  with  dauntless  courage.  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
was  not  wanting  in  either.  His  level  brain  and  sound 
judgment  were  equal  to  the  emergency.  With  marked 
ability  he  defended  the  right  of  opinion  and  the  right 


412  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

of  speech,  and  dared  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office 
in  the  face  of  any  interference  that  might  confront  him. 

In  its  early  history,  Kentucky  was  styled  the  dark 
and  bloody  ground,  and  so  it  was ;  but  no  greater  ca- 
lamity could  have  befallen  either  the  commonwealth 
or  the  Church  than  the  division  at  this  period  of  the 
Kentucky  and  Louisville^ Conferences  on  partisan  plat- 
forms, growing  out  of  the  sympathies  of  the  members 
with  the  North  or  the  South.  Bishop  Kavanaugh  en- 
joyed the  confidence  of  both  parties,  and  with  a  firm 
grasp  and  steady  hand  guided  the  ship  amid  the  per- 
ils of  the  storm  to  a  safe  harbor,  yet  never  making 
any  compromise  of  the  Church,  nor  submitting  to  any 
infraction  of  its  laws. 

His  labors,  if  not  confined  to  Kentucky  during 
that  bloody  period,  were  largely  spent  in  the  State, 
and  to  his  skill,  his  inflexible  integrity,  and  conciliatory 
administration  is  the  Church  on  the  border  indebted  for 
its  elevated  position  and  commanding  influence  to-day. 

From  1861  to  1866,  the  period  covering  the  civil 
war,  the  confused  state  of  the  country  frequently  hin- 
dered the  meeting  of  the  annual  conferences;  and,  if 
held,  in  many  instances  no  minutes  have  been  pre- 
served. 4^ 

In  1862,  the  General  Conference,  which  was  to 
have  met  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  did  not  convene, 
owing  to  the  military  occupancy  of  that  city  by  fed- 
eral troops ;  nor  have  we  any  account  of  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh attending  any  conference  that  year.  But,  in 
1863,  he  presided  over  the  Kentucky  Conference,  held 
in  Shelbyville,  commencing  September  16th.  The 
session  was  not  harmonious.  The  war  was  still  rag- 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  413 

ing,  and  Kentucky  being  a  border  State,  sentiment 
was  still  greatly  divided,  each  party  tenaciously  hold- 
ing to  their  opinions. 

Never  in  all  his  life  was  Bishop  Kavanaugh  ealmer 
or  more  composed  than  during  these  trying  times. 
Impregnable  as  the  Rock  of  Gibraltar  when  convinced 
that  he  was  right,  no  power  could  move  him.  He 
weighed  well  his  purposes,  and  dared  to  act  regardless 
of  frowns  or  threats,  and  no  example  is  on  record 
showing  the  least  vacillation  on  his  part. 

During  the  session  of  the  conference,  he  and  his 
wife  were  the  guests  of  Mrs.  Julia  A.  Tevis,  at  Science 
Hill  Academy,  their  life-long  friend.  Between  John 
Tevis,  who  had  died  January  26,  1861,  and  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  there  had  existed  for  many  years  the 
warmest  friendship  and  the  closest  confidence,  while 
the  same  fond  relations  marked  the  intercourse  of 
Mrs.  Tevis  and  Mrs.  Kavanaugh. 

The  trials  on  the  part  of  the  bishop  were  greatly 
increased  by  the  illness  of  his  wife.  She  was  taken 
sick  during  the  session  of  the  conference,  and  while 
her  disease  at  first  seemed  disposed  to  yield  to  medical 
treatment,  the  symptoms  soon  became  alarming,  and 
on  the  7th  of  October  she  gently  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 
The  bereavement  was  great — the  strong  man  was 
bowed  in  grief.  For  thirty-five  years  she  had  been 
the  light  of  his  home  and  the  joy  of  his  heart.  He 
had  rested  beneath  the  radiance  of  her  smiles,  and 
been  supported  by  her  in  his  arduous  work.  She  had 
accompanied  him  on  his  episcopal  tours,  and  been  the 
companion  of  his  joys  and  his  sorrows.  But  now  he 
is  left  to  battle  alone.  His  children  had  one  by  one 


414  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

passed  away,  and  he  must  confront  difficulties  with  no 
guiding  hand  but  that  of  his  Heavenly  Father.  The 
remains  of  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  were  carried  to  Ver- 
sailles, where  she  was  buried. 

When  they  laid  her  away,  many  wept.  Among 
the  mourners,  Hon.  T.  F.  Marshall  was  conspicuous. 
When  all  others  had  left  the  grave,  he,  with  the 
bishop,  remained.  Taking  Bishop  Kavauaugh  by  the 
hand,  Mr.  Marshall  said :  "  Here  lies  the  best  and 
noblest  woman  that  ever  lived."  And  why  not  this 
tribute  from,  this  gifted  yet  erring  son  of  Kentucky  ? 
Mrs.  Kavanaugh  had  tried  to  win  him  back  from  a 
life  of  dissipation.  Noble  woman !  graceful  and  ac- 
complished, rarely  gifted  and  deeply  pious,  she  lent  a 
charm  to  every  circle  in  which  she  moved. 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  remained  in  Kentucky  after 
the  death  of  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  until  the  following 
spring,  when  he  was  requested  to  visit  California  and 
look  after  the  interests  of  the  Church  in  that  State, 
and  to  hold  a  session  of  the  Pacific  Conference. 

While  there,  "he  preached  all  over  the  land." 
While  attending  the  Calaveras  Camp-meeting,  in 
July,  1864,  he  was  suddenly  confronted  by  a  provost 
guard  and  placed  under  arrest.  In  the  archives  of 
Trinity  Church,  in  San  Francisco,  may  be  found  the 
following  lucid  statement  of  the  whole  affair  from  his 
own  hand,  as  published  in  San  Francisco  at  that  date : 

TO  THE    PUBLIC. 

"  It  is  well  known  to  the  public  that  I  was  re- 
cently arrested  by  the  military  authorities  on  this 
coast,  and  was  required  to  answer  to  certain  charges 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  415 

preferred  against  me  by  persons  even  now  unknown 
to  me. 

"  If  I  were  but  a  private  individual,  holding  no 
official  position  in  the  Church  with  which  I  am  con- 
nected, I  should  perhaps  deem  it  best  to  remain  con- 
tent with  the  vindication  of  my  conduct,  as  estab- 
lished by  the  investigation  before  Generals  Mason  and 
McDowell;  but  claiming,  as  I  do,  to  be  a  minister  of 
Christ,  and  clothed  as  I  am  with  the  high  functions 
of  a  bishop  in  the  Church,  whose  duty  it  is,  by  pre- 
cept and  example,  to  inculcate  the  lessons  taught  by 
my  Divine  Master,  I  owe  it  to  the  cause  of  religion 
and  truth,  and  to  my  high  and  sacred  calling,  to  ex- 
plain to  the  public  frankly  and  in  all  humility  the 
circumstances  connected  with  my  arrest.  The  very 
fact  of  my  arrest  implies  a  suspicion  of  improper  con- 
duct on  my  part,  and  it  is  due  to  the  Church  of  which 
I  am  a  minister  that  I  should  explain  the  circum- 
stances, that  no  reproach  may  rest  upon  the  cause  of 
the  religion  which  I  profess  to  teach  and  practice. 
In  making  this  publication,  I  have  no  motive  but  to 
vindicate  myself  from  suspicion  and  my  high  office 
from  reproach ;  and  I  do  it  with  no  feelings  of  queru- 
lous complaint  against  the  military  authorities,  by  all 
of  whom  I  was  treated  with  the  utmost  courtesy  and 
kindness. 

"  With  this  preliminary  explanation,  I  now  pro- 
ceed to  state  that,  while  I  was  in  attendance  at  a  camp- 
meeting,  some  thirty  miles  from  Stockton,  at  the 
ranch  of  Mr.  Black,  on  the  road  to  Copperopolis  from 
the  city  of  Stockton,  on  the  19th  day  of  July,  and 
shortly  before  I  had  an  appointment  to  preach,  I  was 


416  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

approached  by  Capt.  Jackson,  provost  marshal  of  the 
Southern  District  of  California,  who  took  me  aside, 
with  one  of  my  brethren  in  the  ministry  (the  Rev. 
Mr.  Burchard),  and  said  he  was  ordered  to  arrest  me, 
and  to  take  possession  of  my  person  and  property  and 
take  me  to  San  Francisco.  I  told  him  I  would  go 
with  him.  On  being  informed  that  I  had  an  appoint- 
ment to  preach  at  the  hour  of  11  o'clock,  he  said  I 
could  do  so,  and  he  would  stay  and  hear  me.  After 
the  11  o'clock  services,  we  dined  at  Mr.  Black's,  after 
which  the  captain  asked  me  to  meet  him  on  the  boat 
for  San  Francisco  at  4  o'clock  on  the  next  day  at 
Stockton,  which  I  assured  him  I  would  do,  and  did 
so  accordingly. 

"  From  the  time  of  my  arrest,  the  captain,  for  the 
sake  of  quietude  and  peace,  enjoined  secrecy  upon  me 
and  my  friends  as  to  the  arrest,  until  I  should  reach 
Stockton.  To  this  request  I  yielded  my  full  consent, 
as  I  neither  wished  to  be  the  cause  or  tl>e  occasion  of 
any  trouble  to  the  authorities  or  people  of  California, 
and  carefully  observed  the  injunction.  I  accompanied 
the  provost  marshal  to  this  city.  On  parting  on  the 
the  boat  in  the  morning,  he  requested  me  to  meet 
him  at  his  office  at  twelve  o'clock.  I  complied  with 
this  request,  when  he  told  me  he  was  required 
to  examine  my  baggage,  my  letters,  etc.,  which 
he  did  in  the  presence  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brown, 
of  this  city,  and  myself.  He  did  this  office  with  all 
'the  delicacy  he  could,  to  be  faithful  to  his  obligations. 
He  then  accompanied  me  to  Gen.  Mason's  headquar- 
ters, the  assistant  provost  general  for  this  coast.  I 
now  learned  from  Gen.  Mason  for  the  first  time  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  417 

charges  that  were  made  against  me.  He  said  it  had 
been  stated  of  me  in  his  office — 

"  First — That  I  was  a  citizen  of  the  State  of 
Georgia. 

"  Secondly — That  I  had  crossed  the  military  lines 
with  a  pass  from  the  Confederate  authorities;  and 

"  Thirdly — That  I  was  on  this  coast  without  any 
visible  business. 

"These  charges  were  verbally  stated.  I  was  not 
furnished  with  any  written  charges  or  specifications, 
nor  with  the  names  of  my  accuser  or  accusers.  I  did 
not  ask  who  preferred  these  charges.  Indeed,  I  had 
no  desire  to  know  the  names  of  those  who  set  on  foot 
such  baseless  accusations.  I  gave  to  Gen.  Mason  a 
statement  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  to  which  he  replied 
that  he  thought  if  I  would  commit  the  statements  to 
writing  and  present  them  to  him,  that  they  would  be 
satisfactory  to  Gen.  McDowell.  I  did  so;  and  pre- 
sented him  the  following  statement  of  facts: 

"  'SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL.,  July  20, 1864. 
"'BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JOHN  S.  MASON,  Assistant  Provost  Marshal 

General — 

"  'Dear  Sir:  I  arrived  in  California  a  few  weeks  ago,  on 
business  exclusively  connected  with  the  Church  of  which  I 
am  a  member,  and  am  here  on  no  political  mission  of  any 
character  whatsoever.  I  am  a  native  of  Kentucky,  in 
which  State  I  have  resided  all  my  life,  with  the  exception 
of  about  two  years  passed  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati.  The 
printed  minutes  of  our  Church  will  show  my  whereabouts 
from  the  year  1823  to  1854,  when  I  was -elected  to  the 
episcopacy.  From  that  time  to  this,  my  residence  has 
been  at  Versailles,  Kentucky.  Since  the  commencement 
of  the  war,  I  have  never  crossed  the  military  lines,  nor 


418      .  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

entered  any  State  in  rebellion,  except  on  a  visit  to  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  then  in  possession  of  the  Federal  troops  and 
under  their  control,  together  with  the  whole  line  of  road 
from  my  residence  to  that  city.  I  have  never  been  a  poli- 
tician, nor  in  any  manner  participated  actively  in  political 
affairs,  and  have  never  preached  politics,  either  before  or 
since  the  war.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  invariably  dis- 
couraged it  in  the  ministry  of  the  Church  over  which  I  had 
in  some  sense  the  supervision.  For  the  truth  of  this  state- 
ment, I  appeal  to  all  who  have  ever  heard  me,  or  know 
my  conduct  on  this. coast,  or  elsewhere. 

" '  The  particular  occasion  of  my  present  visit  to  Cali- 
fornia is  as"  follows :  The  Pacific  Conference  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South,  has  been  for  four  years  with- 
out the  presence  of  a  bishop.  During  this  period,  a  number 
of  the  members  of  the  body  were  elected  to  the  order  of 
deacons  and  elders  in  the  Church,  and  for  the  want  of 
ordination  could  not  administer  the  sacraments  of  the 
Church.  Their  ordination  became  an  imperative  neces- 
sity. The  conference  passed  a  resolution  appointing  the 
Rev.  A.  M.  Bailey  to  correspond  with  me  on  the  subject 
of  a  visit  to  this  coast,  to  ordain  these  ministers.  This  re- 
solution is  on  the  records  of  the  conference,  and  is  men- 
tioned in  the  correspondence  between  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bailey 
and  myself.  This  correspondence  with  me  was  ordered 
because  I  was  the  only  accessible  bishop  able  to  travel  so 
far  and  perform  the  functions  of  the  office.  I  came  here 
on  this  business  alone,  and  on  no  mission,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  connected  with  politics  or  the  war,  and  least 
of  all  to  stir  up  dissension  or  encourage  opposition  to  the 
government  or  laws.  Residing,  as  I  do,  in  Kentucky, 
where  great  diversity  of  opinion  prevails  in  regard  to  the 
war,  I  have  dejemed  it  my  duty  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel 
not  only  to  abstain  from  participating  in  political  affairs,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  to  mitigate  as  far  as  practicable  the  as- 
perity of  feeling  which  prevails  so  widely  in  that  State. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  419 

I  have  deemed  mine  to  be  a  mission  of  love  and  peace, 
and  have  so  acted,  both  there  and  here.  So  far  as  I 
know,  my  conduct  has  never  been  questioned  in  Kentucky 
by  the  military  authorities  (where  I  have  lived  so  long 
and  am  so  widely  known),  notwithstanding  the  intense  ex- 
citement which  has  prevailed  in  that  State. 

" '  Under  the  circumstances,  I  find  myself,  compara- 
tively a  stranger  on  this  coast  and  far  from  my  home,  sud- 
denly arraigned  before  the  military  authorities  on  charges 
preferred  by  persons  wholly  unknown  to  me.  That  I  am 
deeply  pained  by  this  proceeding,  I  candidly  confess;  not 
so  much  because  of  any  personal  injury  to  myself,  as  be- 
cause of  the  reproach  it  brings  on  my  sacred  calling  and 
on  the  Church  with  which  I  am  connected.  I  acknowl- 
edge, however,  with  pleasure,  the  courtesy  which  has  been 
extended  to  me  by  all  the  officers  connected  with  the  af- 
fair, and  trusting  that  this  explanation  of  my  conduct  and 
motives  may  prove  satisfactory,  I  am,  very  respectfully, 
"'Yours,  H.  H.  KAVANAUGH.' 

"  I  was  called  upon  for  no  proofs,  and  submitted 
none  other  than  the  foregoing  statement ;  nor  do  I 
know  what  proofs,  if  any,  were  adduced  against  me. 

"After  submitting  this  statement,  I  called  in  per- 
son upon  General  McDowell,  who  received  me  re- 
spectfully, and  expressed  his  satisfaction  with  my 
explanation  in  reply  to  the  charges  preferred  against 
me.  We  then  had  some  conversation  in  regard  to 
the  name  of  the  'Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.' 
I  explained  to  him  that  this  name  was  adopted  in 
1844,  at  a  time  when  a  division,  unfortunately,  oc- 
curred in  the  Methodist  Church,  and,  of  course,  long 
anterior  to  the  war,  and  when  the  country  was  en- 
tirely at  peace;  and  that  the  term  'South'  was  ap- 


420  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

pended,  not  as  indicating  a  political  sentiment,  but  a 
geographical  division,  and  to  designate  the  new 
Church  organization  from  the  old,  and  that  it  was 
intended  to  have  no  signification  as  applied  to  the 
existing  war  which  afflicts  the  country.  The  general, 
however,  thought  in  the  present  condition  of  the 
country  the  term  '  South,'  as  applied  to  a  Church  or- 
ganization on  this  coast,  was  not  only  of  questionable 
propriety,  but  was  liable  to  misconstruction. 

"  On  leaving  the  general,  I  was  most  favorably 
impressed  with  his  soldierly  bearing,  and  with  his 
evident  desire  to  perform  the  delicate  duties  of  his 
high  station  in  a  just  and  impartial  manner;  and  I 
shall  not  soon  forget  the  courtesy  for  which  I  am  in- 
debted to  him  and  his  associate  officers  concerned  in 
my  arrest.  And  in  this  connection,  it  is  proper  to 
say  that  neither  I  nor  those  of  my  friends  conversant 
with  the  character  of  the  charges  preferred  against 
me  blame  any  of  the  military  functionaries  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  for  calling  me  to  an  account  for  the 
items  alleged  against  me.  The  unscrupulous  witness, 
it  is  presumed,  has  rendered  himself  powerless  for 
evil  with  the  officers  of  this  post. 

"  I  have  deemed  this  explanation  proper,  not  so 
much  to  vindicate  myself  as  to  shield  my  sacred 
office  from  the  semblance  of  wrong. 

"H.  H.  KAVANATJGH. 

"SAN  FRANCISCO,  August  10,  1864." 

This  was  the  most  unpleasant  occurrence  of  his 
life,  and  it  certainly  required  intense  partisan  feeling 
to  have  inflicted  such  a  wound. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  421 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  returned  from  the  Pacific 
Coast  in  time  to  meet  the  Louisville  Conference  at 
Henderson,  October  19th.  After  the  close  of  the 
conference  he  traveled  extensively  through  the  State, 
preaching  in  the  principal  towns  and  cities,  casting 
oil  upon  the  troubled  waters,  and  diffusing  every- 
where the  light  of  a  pure  Christianity. 

In  1865  the  dark  cloud  of  war  began  to  disperse, 
with  now  and  then  a  spot  upon  the  sky.  Indica- 
tions of  returning  peace  gladdened  many  a  heart 
and  home. 

On  the  7th  of  March  of  this  year  he  was  married, 
in  Cynthiana,  Ky.,  to  Mrs.  Martha  Lewis,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Captain  Robert  D.  Richardson,  of  Louisiana — 
a  lady  well  qualified  for  the  responsible  duties  she 
assumed. 

His  conferences  began  with  the  Missouri,  held  at 
Hannibal,  commencing  August  16th.  He  next  held 
the  Kentucky,  at  Covington.  From  thence  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Russellville,  where,  on  the  20th  of  Septem- 
ber, the  Louisville  Conference  met,  closing  his  round 
with  the  Tennessee  Conference,  held  in  Edgefield, 
October  4th  to  llth. 

The  internecine  strife  had  been  more  bitter  in 
Missouri  than  in  any  other  State.  Cruelties  at  which 
humanity  shuddered  had  been  perpetrated,  not  only 
by  irresponsible  parties,  but  by  plumed  and  epau- 
letted  officers.  Peaceable  citi/ens  had  been  murdered 
in  their  homes  without  cause,  and  anarchy  had  pre- 
vailed throughout  that  commonwealth.  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh had  presided  over  that  body  in  1860,  since 
which  time  no  bishop  ot  the  Methodist  Episcopal 


422  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Church,  South,  had  attended  any  session  of  the 
conference. 

That  the  Church  should  have  prospered  under 
such  a  state  of  excitement  as  existed  must  excite  not 
only  the  wonder,  but  command  the  admiration,  of 
even  the  foes  of  Methodism  for  the  brave  men  who 
stood  at  their  post  during  those  perilous  times. 

No  man  possessed  true  courage  in  a  higher  degree 
than  Bishop  Kavanaugh.  From  his  early  childhood, 
for  his  bravery,  he  had  been  distinguished ;  and  yet 
no  man  was  more  prudent  and  reserved. 

The  death  list  among  the  preachers  was  large, 
among  whom  were  Caples  and  Robinson  and  Kitson, 
who  would  answer  to  the  roll-call  no  more. 

When  he  went  to  Missouri  the  elements  were  not 
entirely  calm,  yet,  true  to  duty,  we  find  him  at  his 
post,  ready  for  whatever  might  befall  him. 

The  Kentucky  and  Louisville  Conferences  were 
occasions  of  interest.  The  stillness  of  peace  had  fol- 
lowed the  noise  of  war,  and  once  more  we  "sat  un- 
der our  vine  and  fig-tree,"  with  none  to  make  us 
afraid.  The  Tennessee  Conference,  too,  once  more, 
unmolested,  worshiped  the  God  of  their  fathers. 

After  the  lapse  of  eight  years,  the  General  Con- 
ference met,  in  New  Orleans,  on  the  first  Wednesday 
in  April,  1866.  Bishops  Andrew,  Paine,  Pierce, 
Early,  and  Kavanaugh  were  present.  Bishop  Soule, 
the  senior  bishop,  was  confined  at  his  home,  near 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  while  Bishops  Andrew  and  Early 
were  both  in  feeble  health. 

Since  the  previous  meeting  of  the  body  the 
Church  had  passed  through  a  trying  ordeal,  but,  like 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  423 

gold  refined  in  the  fire,  only  the  dross  had  been 
consumed. 

A  large  amount  of  important  legislation  was  en- 
acted during  this  session,  not  the  least  of  which  was 
the  initiatory  step  towards  lay  representation  in  the 
annual  and  general  conferences. 

Since  1854  no  additional  bishop  had  been  elected, 
and  the  health  of  three  of  the  number,  together  with 
the  increase  of  the  work  to  be  performed,  growing 
out  of  the  extension  of  the  field  and  the  adoption  of 
district  conferences,  induced  the  election  of  four  ad- 
ditional superintendents.  The  election  took  place  on 
Thursday,  April  26th.  On  the  first  ballot,  William 
M.  Wightman,  of  the  Mobile  Conference,  and  Enoch 
M.  Marvin,  of  the  Missouri  Conference,  were  elected ; 
and  on  the  third  ballot,  David  S.  Doggett,  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Conference,  and  Holland  N.  McTyeire,  of  the 
Montgomery  Conference,  were  elected.  A  divine  hand 
surely  guided  in  the  elevation  of  these  men  to  this 
holy  office. 

In  the  plan  of  episcopal  visitation  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh  was  assigned  to  the  Pacific  and  Columbia  Con- 
ferences, the  former  to  be  held  at  Petaluma,  California, 
and  the  latter  at  Corvallis,  Oregon. 

It  was  no  easy  task  on  the  part  of  the  bishop  to 
undertake  the  work  to  which  he  was  appointed.  He 
was  sick  in  New  Orleans  when  the  General  Confer- 
ence adjourned,  and  continued  ill  for  several  weeks. 
After  leaving  the  city,  on  board  the  steamer  W.  R. 
Arthur,  he  relapsed  before  reaching  Memphis,  where 
he  remained  one  week,  and  did  not  reach  his  home  in 
Kentucky  until  late  in  June.  Soon  after  reaching 


424  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

home  the  illness  of  his  wife's  mother  seemed  to  ren- 
der it  impossible  for  him  to  leave.  He,  however,  made 
arrangements  for  his  long  journey,  and  on  the  25th  of 
August  left  home  for  the  city  of  New  York,  to  take 
the  steamer  of  the  1st  of  September  for  California. 

The  voyage  to  California  was  in  many  respects  a 
pleasant  one.  From  a  letter  to  the  Christian  Advocate 
we  copy  the  following  interesting  paragraph : 

"  It  has  generally  been  the  habit  of  the  Pacific 
Mail  Steamship  Company  to  have  preaching  on  the 
ships  every  Sabbath  when  they  have  a  minister  aboard. 
I  had  always  preached  for  them  in  the  passages  I  had 
made  on  their  ships,  at  the  request  of  the  captain  of 
the  vessel.  Leaving  New  York  the  present  trip  on 
Saturday,  the  1st  of  September,  the  next  day  being 
the  Sabbath,  on  Saturday  evening  the  purser  of  the 
ship  asked  me  if  I  would  read  the  Episcopal  service 
for  them  the  next  day.  It  occurred  to  me  that  the 
service  was  well  enough  in  itself,  and  that  I  had  no 
farther  objection  to  the  service  than  its  general  ten- 
dency to  a  dead  formality.  This  deadness  may  not  be 
a  necessary,  but  is  a  very  usual  result.  I  pondered 
in  my  mind  the  character  of  this  request,  and  con- 
cluded that  it  was  a  most  singular  request;  that  a 
minister  of  more  than  forty  years'  standing  in  the 
Church,  and  who  by  his  Church  had  been  placed  in 
the  position  I  occupy,  should  be  called  upon  to  read 
the  service  of  another  denomination.  Well,  I  thought, 
this  is  pretty  cool.  Will  the  officers  of  a  ship  only 
accept  the  services  of  a  single  denomination  ?  On  Sab- 
bath morning,  when  called  upon  for  the  reading  of  the 
service,  I  told  the  purser  that  I  had  concluded,  that 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  425 

if  I  held  the  services,  to  do  so  in  my  own  way.  He 
seemed  to  drop  me  at  once,  and  inquired  if  I  thought 
that  either  of  the  other  clergymen  would  comply  with 
his  request.  I  told  him  that  I  could  not  say — he  had 
better  inquire  of  them.  After  a  little  delay,  I  re- 
ceived a  message  to  please  hold  the  services  in  my 
own  way,  with  which  request  I  complied." 

The  day  after  reaching  San  Francisco  he  was  in- 
formed that  he  was  expected  at  a  camp-meeting  near 
San  Jose,  and  by  the  next  Sabbath  a  hundred  miles 
from  there,  at  a  basket-meeting  near  Petaluma. 

In  referring  to  these  meetings,  he  writes:  "I 
preached  for  them  that  night,  and  the  next  morning 
at  11  o'clock.  There  were  three  conversions  in  the 
afternoon  and  seven  at  night.  How  many  converts 
during  the  meeting  I  do  not  know,  but  think  some 
twenty  or  thirty.  The  meeting  at  Macedonia,  near 
Petaluma,  was  also  successful.  It  is  in  the  work  of 
Brother  S.  Brown.  Nine  additions  to  the  Church  on 
Sunday.  How  many  during  the  meeting  I  have  not 
learned." 

This  was  his  third  visit  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and 
that  it  would  not  be  one  of  leisure  or  ease  was  already 
evident. 

If  we  follow  him  in  his  travels  we  must  accom- 
pany him  to  Portland,  Oregon,  and  from  thence  to 
Corvallis,  the  seat  of  the  Columbia  Conference;  and 
from  thence  to  Albany,  Dallas,  Salem,  and  Lafayette, 
back  to  Portland ;  and  on  until  we  land  with  him 
again  at  San  Francisco,  everywhere  preaching  and 
making  full  proof  of  his  ministry. 

Bishop  Soule  died  near  Nashville,  Tennessee,  March 


426  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

6,  1867,  and  a  few  weeks  later  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  bishops  was  held.  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  still  in 
California.  He  believed  that  by  remaining  for  awhile 
longer  on  the  Pacific  Coast  he  could  serve  the  Church 
to  greater  advantage,  and  hence  it  was  decided  that  he 
should  spend  there  the  period  intervening  previous 
to  the  meeting  of  the  Pacific  and  Columbia  Con- 
ferences. 

He  passed  the  time,  as  he  did  the  previous  year, 
traveling  extensively  and  preaching  constantly,  wit- 
nessing the  triumphs  of  the  Cross  in  the  awakening 
and  conversion  of  hundreds,  until  his  name  was  known 
in  village  and  hamlet  throughout  that  vast  territory. 
Not  only  was  his  praise  gazetted  in  the  denomina- 
tional papers,  but  the  religious  press  all  over  Cal- 
ifornia and  Oregon  heralded  his  praise,  while  the 
secular  papers  spoke  of  him  in  terms  of  the  highest 
commendation. 

The  Columbia  Conference  was  appointed  for  Dal- 
las, Oregon,*  August  28th,  and  the  Pacific  at  San 
Jose,  October  1st. 

At  no  time  did  he  pause  to  rest.  In  March  he 
preached  in  Yuba  City  and  in  Marysville,  and  through 
the  country  surrounding,  while  the  Church  was  quick- 
ened- and  many  happily  converted,  while  the  Colusa 
Sun  says':  "After  preaching  here  every  night  for  a 
week,  the  bishop  left  us  yesterday  morning  for  Red 
Bluff.  There  was  a  large  attendance  during  the  whole 
time,  and  quite  a  number  joined  the  Church.  The 
bishop  is  not  only  an  eloquent  speaker,  but  he  is  a 
fine  logician.  Many  will  remember  with  pleasure 

*  The  conference  was  held  at  Rickreall  Camp-ground. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  427 

and  profit  his  visit  to  Colusa,  after  he  shall  have  re- 
ceived his  reward  in  heaven  for  his  labors  among  us." 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  at  this  date  sixty-five  years 
old,  and  yet  after  these  immense  labors  June  15th  he 
was  in  the  office  of  the  Spectator,  "  looking  well,  and 
in  perfect  health,"  having  just  "returned  from  his  tour 
in  the  southern  portion  of  California,"  and  ready  to 
start  two  days  later  "  to  Oregon,  by  the  Oriflamme." 
The  Visalia  and  Mariposa  papers,  where  he  had 
preached,  speak  very  highly  of  his  pulpit  efforts. 

We  next  meet  with  him  in  Oregon,  Rickreall 
Camp-ground,  holding  the  Columbia  Conference, 
"  preaching  powerfully."  We  then  follow  him  to  the 
Pacific  Conference,  where  we  find  him,  whether  in 
the  chair  or  the  pulpit,  rendering  entire  satisfaction. 

During  the  session,  the  Spectator  says : 

"Immediately  after  our  approaching  conference 
session  Bishop  Kavanaugh  will  embark  for  his  home 
in  Kentucky,  if,  indeed,  it  can  be  said  that  a  bishop 
of  our  Church  has  any  home,  when  almost  perpetual 
toil  and  travel  are  his  lot.  Of  Bishop  Kavanaugh  it 
may  be  said  that  he  is  emphatically  a  workinff  bishop. 
If  we  had  at  hand  the  statistics  showing  the  number 
of  miles  he  has  traveled  and  the  number  of  sermons 
he  has  preached  during  the  past  year,  an  aggregate 
would  be  presented  that  would  perhaps  astonish  some 
of  our  readers.  He  has  been  abundant  in  labors,  and 
as  a  chief  pastor  in  the  Church  furnishes  an  example 
worthy  to  be  followed  by  all  its  ministers.  The  good 
that  has  resulted  and  will  result  from  his  labors  is 
everywhere  apparent,  but  can  not  be  fully  estimated 
now.  Through  him  God  has  strengthened  the  Church 


428  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

and  converted  many  sinners  from  the  error  of  their 
ways.  In  one  or  two  instances  his  episcopal  presence 
and  authority  have  adjusted  the  most  complicated  dif- 
ficulties and  (humanly  speaking)  averted  impending 
catastrophes  to  the  Church.  The  experience  of  the 
past  year  has  confirmed  our  conviction  of  the  neces- 
sity of  a  resident  bishop  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  We 
venture  here  to  suggest  to  the  episcopal  board  that 
they  remember  our  necessity  at  their  next  meeting, 
and  send  us  a  bishop  to  remain  with  us  until  the  next 
General  Conference.  We  will  not  indicate  a  choice. 
Our  choice  is  the  man  who  will  come.  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh  has  fully  won  the  affection  of  our  people. 
They  will  accompany  him  in  his  homeward-bound 
voyage  by  their  prayers,  and  should  he  return  to  us 
he  will  be  welcomed  joyfully  by  all." 

He  reached  Kentucky  in  good  time  before  Winter 
set  in,  receiving  the  cordial  greetings  of  friends  in 
every  community  he  visited. 

Early  in  1868  he  became  so  indisposed  that  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  suspend  preaching  for  awhile. 
His  excessive  labors  in  California  and  Oregon  had 
well-nigh  prostrated  him.  Yet  it  was  more  easy  for 
him  to  preach  than  to  rest.  His  spirit  chafed  under 
the  deprivation  of  preaching  the  Gospel.  A  rest  of  a 
few  weeks,  however,  restored  him  and  once  more  we 
find  him  swaying  the  multitudes  by  the  magic  power 
he  possessed. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  bishops  this  year  was 
in  Louisville,  commencing  May  7th.  Bishops  Andrew, 
Paine,  and  Early  were  absent,  the  others  were  present. 

Bishop  Kavauaugh's  field  of  episcopal  labor  was 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  429 

the  Missouri,  St.  Louis,  Mississippi,  East  Texas,  and 
Louisiana  Conferences. 

A  few  days  after  the  adjournment  of  the  bishops' 
meeting  we  had  the  pleasure,  in  company  with  Bishop 
Pierce,  to  spend  a  night  with  Bishop  Kavanaugh  and 
family  at  Lexington.  We  were  on  our  way  to  the 
Lexington  District  Conference,  at  Nicholasville.  The 
next  morning  we  reached  Nicholasville,  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh coming  over  in  the  afternoon,  and  preaching 
on  Saturday  night  with  his  usual  pathos  and  power. 
Before  the  month  of  May  closes  we  meet  with  him  at 
the  Bardstown  District  Conference,  held  in  Lebanon, 
where  he  preached  "  with  great  fervor  and  success." 
He  spent  the  Summer  in  Kentucky,  preaching  with 
all  the  vigor  of  his  early"  manhood,  while  success 
crowned  his  labors.  Late  in  August  he  passed  through 
St.  Louis  on  his  way  to  Weston,  the  seat  of  the  Mis- 
souri Conference.  He  closed  his  tour  of  conferences 
late  in  December  at  New  Iberia,  Louisiana,  where  his 
preaching  was  spoken  of  in  the  following  words: 

"Bishop'  Kavanaugh  presided  at  the  conference 
and  endeared  himself  to  the  preachers  by  his  exceed- 
ing great  ability  and  patience  and  cheerfulness.  He 
improved  every  occasion  for  giving  godly  counsel  in 
the  conference,  at  the  sacramental  board,  and  else- 
where. He  preached  on  Sunday  morning.  It  was 
the  mightiest  sermon  I  ever  listened  to,  though  I  have 
heard  great  men  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  There 
was  a  power  and  unction  in  the  discourse  which  so 
overwhelmed  the  hearers  that,  convulsed  and  trans- 
fixed, many  of  us  did  not  know,  for  the  time,  whether 
we  were  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body." 


430  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

In  January,  1869,  he  is  at  home  in  Kentucky, 
writing  cheeringly  to  Dr.  Summers  in  reference  to  the 
portion  of  the  Church  he  had  visited,  and  while  we 
expect  to  find  him  yet  resting,  he  is  passing  through 
St.  Louis  en  route  to  Western  Missouri,  on  an  extensive 
tour  of  episcopal  visitation. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  bishops  was  held  in 
St.  Louis  in  May,  and  the  Kentucky,  Western  Vir- 
ginia, Memphis,  South  Georgia,  and  South  Carolina 
Conferences  all  occupy  his  labors  for  the  year. 

After  the  adjournment  of  the  meeting  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh  remained  for  some  time  in  Missouri,  attending 
District  Conferences  and  preaching  through  the  State. 

The  Kentucky  Conference  was  held  in  Cynthiana, 
commencing  September  1st.  The  secretary  writes: 
"  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  our  president.  Vigorous, 
fresh,  commanding,  he  sustained  himself,  and  the  ad- 
miration we  Kentuckians  have  always  had  for  him." 

At  the  close  of  the  Kentucky  Conference  the  bishop 
was  taken  sick,  and  was  unable  to  attend  the  Western 
Virginia  Conference,  which  met  at  Mount  Pleasant, 
September  15th. 

In  the  meantime  he  held  the  Kentucky  Colored 
Conference,  which  met  in  Winchester,  October  13th. 

The  Memphis  Conference  met  November  3d",  at 
Holly  Springs,  Mississippi.  Bishop  Kavanaugh's 
health  was  now  fully  restored,  and  he  presided  with 
greater  ease  than  we  had  ever  known  him,,  while  the 
committee  on  public  worship  seemed  disposed  to  tax 
his  strength  to  its  utmost  capacity.  He  preached 
twice  previous  to  the  Sabbath,  and  on  Sunday  for  an 
hour  and  a  half  the  audience  hung  in  breathless 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  431 

silence  on  his  lips  while  words  of  life  fell  like  gems 
over  the  assembly. 

We  had  seen  him,  we  thought,  in  every  position 
in  which  a  bishop  could  be  placed.  But  no ;  a  new 
role  awaited  him.  A  young  preacher  had  been  over- 
taken in  a  fault,  and  the  conference  sentenced  him  to 
a  public  reprimand.  The  delicate  task  was  to  be  per- 
formed by  the  bishop.  The  young  preacher  stood 
before  him,  in  the  presence  of  his  brethren,  his  face 
suffused  with  tears. 

"  My  young  brother,  I  regret  the  misstep  you 
have  taken,  but  I  sympathize  with  you.  The  circum- 
stances that  surrounded  you  certainly  palliate  your 
offense.  Trust  in  God  for  help,  and  sin  no  more." 

The  broad  face  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  damp 
as  he  took  the  hand  of  the  erring  one  in  his.  Every 
heart  was  touched,  and  every  eye  wept. 

He  was  able  to  reach  and  preside  over  the  South 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina  Conferences,  and  to  per- 
form his  part  of  the  pulpit  and  platform  work. 

He  returned  to  Kentucky  in  time  to  dedicate  the 
new  church  on  Rose  Lane,  in  the  city  of  Louisville, 
which  was  called  KAVANAUGH  CHAPEL. 


432  LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FROM   THE    GENERAL    CONFERENCE   OF  1870    TO    THE 
ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  BISHOPS  IN  1875. 

THE    General    Conference   of  1870   was   held   in 
Memphis,  Tennessee,  commencing  May  4th. 

On  the  sixteenth  day  of  the  session,  and  on  the 
21st  day  of  May,  John  Christian  Keener,  of  the  Louis- 
iana Conference  was  elected  bishop.  The  ordination 
took  place  on  the  following  day  in  the  Second  Street 
Methodist  Church.  The  sermon  was  preached  by 
Rev.  Lovick  Pierce,  D.  D. ;  the  collect  was  read  by 
Bishop  Andrew;  the  epistle  by  Bishop  Pierce;  and 
the  Gospel  by  Bishop  Kavanaugh.  Dr.  Keener  was 
presented  by  Jefferson  Hamilton  and  Nehemiah  A. 
Cravens. 

In  the  plan  of  episcopal  visitation  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh was  assigned  to  the  Holston,  North  Alabama, 
North  Georgia,  South  Georgia,  and  Florida  Con- 
ferences. 

'  Scarcely  had  the  General  Conference  adjourned  until 
we  find  Bishop  Kavanaugh  in  the  field  prosecuting 
his  work  with  untiring  energy. 

In  a  list  of  appointments  published  by  himself  he 
says: 

"  I  expect  to  attend  the  Maysville  District  Con- 
ference, to  include  the  second  Sabbath  iu  June,  at 
Maysville,  Kentucky. 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGH.  433 

"The  Lexington  District  Conference,  at  Versailles, 
including  the  fourth  Sabbath  in  June. 

"That  of  the  Shelbyville  District,  at  Christians- 
burg,  on  Tuesday, Wednesday,  and  Thursday,  the  three 
last  days  of  June. 

"That  of  the  Covington  District,  at  Petersburg, 
Boone  County,  Kentucky,  including  the  second  Sab- 
bath in  July. 

"  I  will  also  attend  a  meeting,  of  several  days'  con- 
tinuance, at  the  Providence  Church  of  the  Richmond 
Circuit,  including  the  third  Sabbath  of  July,  in  Mad- 
ison County,  Kentucky. 

"And  including  the  fifth  Sunday  in  July,  the 
District  Conference  of  the  Harrodsburg  District,  at 
Richmond,  Kentucky. 

"The  month  of  August  I  propose  spending  in  the 
Western  Virginia  Conference,  at  points  yet  to  be  des- 
ignated. H.  H.  KAVANAUGH. 

"LEXINGTON,  KY.,  June  7,  1870." 

This  was  certainly  work  enough  to  occupy  the 
time  and  the  energies  of  this  venerable  minister  of 
Christ  during  the  period  that  would  intervene  before 
he  would  enter  upon  his  round  of  conferences,  and 
yet  he  announced  that  before  leaving  for  Wytheville, 
Virginia,  where  the  Holston  Conference  would  hold 
its  session,  he  would  spend  a  few  days  with  Bishop 
Paine,  at  the  Kentucky  Conference. 

During  the  Kentucky  Conference  Dr:  Huston,  of 
Baltimore  Conference,  made  his  appearance  and 
briefly  addressed  the  conference.  He  said  that  he 
saw  that  many  of  his  brethren  with  whom  he  had 

been  contemporary  were  growing  gray,  that  his  own 

37 


434  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

head  was  silvering  beneath  the  frost-touches  of  time's 
unsparing  hand ;  but  there  were  "  two  things  that 
did  n't  grow  gray — Bishop  Kavanaugh's  head  and  his 
heart.'  We  had  the  pleasure  of  being  with  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  at  Wy theville.  His  missionary  address  on 
Saturday  evening  gave  a  fresh  impulse  to  the  cause 
of  missions,  and  quickened  the  zeal  of  the-  members 
of  this  conference,  while  the  large  collection  showed 
the  feeling  that  had  been  awakened.  In  pleading  for 
the  heathen  he  employed  no  strategy,  but  appealed  to 
the  wants  of  the  world  lying  in  wickedness,  and  to 
the  duty  of  the  Church  blessed  with  the  light  of  the 
Gospel.  He  preached  at  Abingdon,  Virginia,  after 
the  close  of  the  Holston  Conference  to  the  profit  of 
the  people. 

The  Tennessee  Conference,  held  at  Pulaski,  over 
which  Bishop  Doggett  presided,  met  the  same  day  as 
the  Holston,  and  after  the  close  of  each  Bishops  Kav- 
anaugh and  Doggett  met  in  Nashville,  where  they 
spent  the  Sabbath. 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  our  guest,  and  Bishop 
Doggett  the  guest  of  Mr.  Jennings.  In  the  forenoon, 
on  Sunday,  the  former  preached  at  Elm  Street,  and 
the  latter  at  McKendree.  In  the  afternoon  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  preached  for  the  colored  people  at  Capers 
Chapel.  Bishop  Doggett  took  tea  with  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh on  Sunday  evening,  and  while  at  supper  a 
member  of  the  McKendree  Church  called  on  the 
bishops  and  requested  one  of  them  to  preach  in  that 
church  that  evening. 

Bishop  Doggett  answered,  "I  preached  there  this 
forenoon,  and  can  not  do  so  again  this  evening;  while 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  435 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  stated  that  he  had  already  preached 
twice  and  could  hardly  be  expected  to  preach  a  third 
time.  Both  of  them  declined. 

The  member  of  the  Church  answered,  "Our 
preacher  has  not  returned  from  conference,  and  a 
large  audience  will  be  present  and  must  not  be  dis- 
appointed." Then,  turning  to  another  preacher,  who 
was  present,  he  asked  him  if  he  would  preach. 

He  answered,  "Have  the  bell  rung." 

Both  the  bishops  seemed  to  enjoy  the  dilemma  in 
which  the  preacher  was  placed. 

Before  they  left  the  table  and  on  their  way  to 
Church  they  inquired  of  him  as  to  the  text  from 
which  he  would  preach. 

His  reply  was,  "  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  announc- 
ing my  text  except  from  the  pulpit." 

When  we  entered  the  church  it  was  crowded. 
The  camp-stools  had  been  placed  in  the  aisles  so  that 
the  pulpit  was  reached  by  a  slow  process. 

The  preacher  invited  the  two  bishops  into  the 
pulpit.  They  knelt;  and  while  on  their  knees  he 
walked  quietly  back  into  the  congregation  and  took 
a  seat. 

Bishop  Doggett  was  the  first  to  discover  the  ab- 
sence of  the  preacher  and  saw  the  situation  at  once, 
and,  turning  to  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  inquired  as  to  its 
meaning. 

"Will  Dr.  dare  treat  two  bishops  in  this 

way  ?" 

"  He  has  already  dared,"  was  the  reply  of  Bishop 
Kavanaugh.  "If  you  knew  him  as  well  as  I  do  you 
would  not  ask  that  question." 


436  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

They  both  looked  over  the  audience,  and,  failing 
to  see  the  object  of  their  search,  put  on  a  blank  ap- 
pearance. Bishop  Doggett  at  length  discovered  him 
near  the  center  of  the  house  and  beckoned  to  him  to 
come  to  the  pulpit,  but  no  response  was  made. 

The  two  bishops  are  whispering.  "  What  shall  we 
do?"  said  Bishop  Doggett,  sadly. 

"We  are  in  for  it,"  replied  Bishop  Kavanaugh, 
with  a  smile. 

"  I  think  we  are  badly  treated,"  was  Bishop 
Doggett's  rejoinder. 

"  I  think  he  served  us  right,"  answered  Bishop 
Kavanaugh,  having  difficulty  to  suppress  laughter. 

The  result  was,  Bishop  Kavanaugh  preached. 
The  sermon  was  a  wonderful  array  of  truth,  fresh 
from  the  pages  of  God's  Word.  For  more  than  an 
hour  he  had  over  the  audience  an  influence  that  lan- 
guage can  not  describe.  The  first  half-hour  he  was 
argumentative;  and  then  the  wings  of  his  imagination 
were  unfolded,  and  he  soared  aloft  to  the  regions  of 
light  and  life  and  love.  From  the  tree  of  life  he 
brought  back  golden  fruit,  and  bade  his  hearers  eat 
and  live  forever ;  he  offered  them  water,  fresh  from 
the  river  that  makes  glad  the  city  of  God,  which  if 
they  would  drink,  they  should  never  thirst  again;. he 
offered  them  palms  of  victory,  which  they  might 
wave  in  time  and  through  eternity ;  and  crowns 
brighter  far  than  ever  decked  a  monarch's  brow,  that 
they  might  wear  after  the  world  should  be  burned  up. 
Every  eye  rested  on  the  preacher,  and  every  form 
leaned  toward  the  pulpit,  while  all  seemed  uncon- 
scious of  the  rapid  flight  of  time. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  437 

On  our  return  home,  he  said,  "  Well,  you  played 
us  a  pretty  trick." 

"  I  did  the  audience  a  great  favor,"  was  the  reply. 

"  I  think  you  served  us  right,"  he  answered.  And 
then  he  entertained  the  family  until  after  twelve 
o'clock  with  anecdotes  and  incidents,  and  only  retired 
after  he  was  told  that  it  was  past  midnight. 

Bishop  Doggett  was  not  so  forgiving ;  he  held  this 
against  us  for  a  long  time. 

From  Nashville,  Bishop  Kavanaugh  returned  to 
his  home  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  "  in  excellent  health, 
and  on  Sunday,  October  23d,  preached  two  powerful 
sermons  in  Paris,  it  being  the  occasion  of  the  quar- 
terly-meeting." 

A  few  weeks  later,  we  find  him  confined  to  his 
room  from  an  injury  he  had  received,  unable  to  meet 
his  pulpit  engagements. 

The  affliction  of  the  bishop  continued,  rendering 
it  impossible  for  him  to  meet  the  North  Alabama, 
North  Georgia,  and  South  Georgia  Conferences. 

In  January,  1871,  he  was  still  suffering  and  un- 
able to  walk,  or  to  meet  an  engagement  to  attend  the 
semi-centenary  meeting  in  St.  Louis. 

On  the  10th  of  February,  he  writes,  from  Lexing- 
ton :  "  I  have  been  confined  now  thirteen  weeks ;  my 
present  condition  promises  that  my  release  is  close  at 
hand,  and  I  sigh  to  be  active  once  more.  I  trust 
that  my  confinement  has  been  of  considerable  service 
to  me,  in  giving  much  more  time  for  reading  and  re- 
flection than  I  have  enjoyed  for  full  many  a  year." 

When  unable  to  do  the  will  of  God,  he  yet  could 
suffer  it,  improving  even  his  hours  of  suffering,  that 


438  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

he  might  achieve  greater  success  in  the  cause  of  his 
Master. 

In  March,  we  find  him  in  the  field,  prosecuting 
with  vigor  his  high  and  holy  calling.  Another  of 
his  colleagues  had  died ;  Bishop  Andrew  had  fallen. 
At  Mobile,  Ala.,  March  2,  1871,  he  passed  away, 
with  the  word  "  Victory  "  on  his  lips. 

Early  in  April,  he  announces  the  following  ap- 
pointments : 

"  Harrodsburg  District  Conference,  at  Stanford, 
Ky.,  Thursday,  April  27th,  including  the  5th  Sabbath. 
In  the  Holston  Conference:  Pikeville  District,  May 
19th  (Thursday),  including  Abingdon  District,  May 
25th  ;  Jeffersonville  District,  Va.,  Thursday,  April  1st, 
including  the  first  Sabbath  of  June,  1871 ;  "YVytheville 
District,  at  Dublin,  Va.,  June  8th,  including  the  sec- 
ond Sabbath  in  June;  Jonesboro  District,  East  Ten- 
nessee, June  15th,  including  the  third  Sabbath  in 
June ;  Knoxville  District,  at  Knoxville,  June  22d, 
including  the  fourth  Sabbath  in  June;  Athens  Dis- 
trict, at  Athens,  June  29th,  including  the  first  Sabbath 
in  July;  Chattanooga  District,  at  Cleveland,  July  6th, 
including  the  second  Sabbath  in  July." 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  bishops  took  place 
May  15th,  in  Nashville.  On  Sunday  preceding, 
he  preached  in  Franklin,  Tennessee,  morning  and 
evening. 

His  episcopal  district  for  this  year  embraced  the 
Illinois,  Memphis,  North  Mississippi,  Mississippi,  and 
Louisiana  Conferences. 

His  labors  at  the  district  conferences  began  prior 
to  the  bishops'  meeting,  and  continued  until  after  the 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  439 

second  Sunday  in  July.  On  the  llth  of  July,  he 
passed  through  Nashville,  en  route  for  his  home  in 
Kentucky,  spending  a  night  with  our  family  in  his 
Nashville  home. 

After  the  immense  labors  he  had  just  performed, 
he  will  surely  rest.  Instead  of  resting,  he  traverses 
his  own  loved  Kentucky,  mingling  with  the  old  laud- 
marks  that  are  left,  and  preaching  the  word  of  life 
to  their  descendants. 

He  reached  Ashley,  the  seat  of  the  Illinois  Con- 
ference, in  good  time,  "  presided  in  his  usual  pleasant 
manner,"  while  "on  Sunday  the  whole  town  and 
country  round  about  assembled  in  a  grove,  where  a 
stand  and  seats  were  prepared,  and  where  for  nearly 
two  hours  they  listened  to  one  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh's 
moving  discourses." 

At  the  Memphis  Conference,  we  were  with  the 
bishop,  and  occupied  the  same  room.  Here  he  won 
the  hearts  of  preachers  and  people,  conducting  the 
business  with  energy,  and  preaching  with  his  accus- 
tomed zeal  and  power. 

The  North  Mississippi  Conference  was  held  in 
Columbus,  where  he  left  an  impression  for  good  that 
can  not  be  effaced  in  a  generation. 

At  the  Mississippi  Conference,  the  secretary,  Dr. 
Andrews,  says:  "Bishop  Kavanaugh  preached  at  11 
A.  M.,  at  the  Methodist  Church,  a  grand  sermon;  and 
when  I  inform  you  that  he  lost  sight  of  one  thing  in 
his  sermon — that  in  years  he  is  an  old  man — you  can 
then  form  an  idea  of  the  character  of  his  discourse." 
He  was  writing*  to  Dr.  Summers,  from  Meridian, 
where  the  conference  was  held. 


440  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

The  same  testimony  comes  from  the  Louisiana 
Conference,  which  met  in  Monroe,  when  "  the  most 
of  the  preaching  was  by  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  and  by 
the  eloquent-tongued  Tudor,  and  the  live-coal-lipped 
Matthews,  of  New  Orleans." 

On  his  return  home,  in  February,  1872,  he  lays 
out  his.  work  for  such  district  conferences  as  he  may 
be  able  to  attend.  He  proposes  to  devote  three 
months  to  this  department,  commencing  with  the  Mis- 
sissippi Conference  early  in  April,  and  closing  in  Illi- 
nois July  14th,  attending  in  the  meantime  four  in  the 
North  Mississippi  and  three  in  the  Memphis,  preach- 
ing not  only  on  these  occasions,  but  all  along  the  route 
of  his  travels,  with  the  matchless  power  that  had  distin- 
guished his  earlier  days.  Why  does  he  not  rest?  A 
holy  impulse  seems  to  move  him,  and  he  can  not 
pause  in  his  course.  "  Labor  is  rest,"  and  only  in  the 
performance  of  the  glorious  work  to  which  God  had 
called  him  does  he  find  repose. 

In  March,  he  dedicates  Bascom  Chapel  in  the  city 
of  Louisville.  His  theme  was,  "  The  Church  of  God 
the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,"  and  the  sermon 
was  said  to  have  been  "  one  of  his  happiest  efforts." 

He  attended  the  bishops'  annual  meeting  in  Nash- 
ville, in  May.  The  interest  of  the  occasion  was 
heightened  by  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Publishing  House,  at  which  the  prayer  was  offered 
by  Bishop  Kavanaugh. 

His  episcopal  district  embraced  the  Western  Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky,  North  Mississippi,  and  Mississippi 
Conferences;  but  hardly  had  the  meeting  adjourned 
until  we  see  him  in  the  bounds  of  the  North  Missis- 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  441 

sippi  Conference,  attending  the  Columbus  District 
Conference. 

Before  entering  upon  his  annual  conference  work 
he  attended  the  St.  Louis  camp-meeting,  and  preached 
on  Sunday  morning  to  the  immense  audience  that 
was  present.  In  alluding  to  the  sermon,  a  writer 
said,  "As  a  camp-meeting  preacher,  Bishop  Kava- 
naugh  has  scarcely  an  equal  in  the  connection." 

He  met  the  Kentucky  Conference  September  4th, 
where  warm  hearts  awaited  him,  and  the  Western 
Virginia  on  the  18th  of  the  same  month.  We  were 
with  him  at  both  of  these  conferences,  and  witnessed 
the  aifectionate  regard  bestowed  upon  him. 

We  heard  him  preach  at  Harrodsburg,  but  were 
denied  the  privilege  at  Parkersburg.  The  secretary 
of  the  conference  wrote :  "  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  on 
the  Sabbath,  seemed  to  excel  himself  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Spirit  of  truth,  and  proclaimed  the 
Gospel  with  a  power  that  thrilled  every  heart  in  the 
vast  congregation." 

He  had  presided  over  the  North  Mississippi  and 
the  Mississippi  Conferences  the  previous  year,  but  his 
return  was  gladly  welcomed.  At  the  North  Missis- 
sippi Conference  he  preached  the  Thanksgiving  ser- 
mon, which  was  well  received;  and  at  the  Mississippi 
he  endeared  himself  more  than  ever  by  his  genial 
good-nature,  while  his  eloquent  flights  in  the  pulpit 
and  on  the  platform  won  for  him  the  title  of  "  the 
old  man  eloquent." 

On  the  7th  of  February,  1873,  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Kentucky  sustained  a  great  loss  in  the 
death  of  David  Thornton.  He  was  the  intimate 


442  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

friend  and  brother-in-law  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  who 
felt  the  bereavement  most  deeply. 

Mr.  Thornton  was  born  in  Milford,  Del.,  January 
4,  1796,  and  removed  with  his  parents  to  Versailles, 
Ky.,  when  only  eleven  years  of  age.  In  1820  he 
made  a  profession  of  religion  and  joined  the  Meth- 
odist Church,  in  which  he  lived  a  useful  and  an  hon- 
ored member  until  called  to  his  home  in  the  skies. 
No  man  in  Kentucky  lived  a  purer  life,  and  none 
contributed  more  to  the  happiness  of  others,  than 
David  Thornton.  In  his  business  relations  lie  was  a 
model,  doing  unto  others  as  he  would  have  them  do 
unto  him,  filling  offices  of  honor  and  of  trust  with 
fidelity;  as  a  Christian,  shedding  a  golden  light  upon 
the  circle  in  which  he  moved,  blessing  the  commu- 
nity where  he  lived,  and  leaving  behind  him  the 
savor  of  a  good  name.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 
only  General  Conference  that  met,  before  his  death, 
after  lay  delegation  was  introduced,  and  of  every 
annual  and  district  conference  held  to  which  he  was 
eligible.  He  married  Charlotte  Railey,  who  is  spoken 
of  elsewhere  in  this  volume.  His  death  was  a  be- 
reavement to  the  entire  community. 

Visitors  to  the  Methodist  Church  in  Versailles 
may  see  the  memorial  tower  erected  to  his  memory 
by  his  family  and  friends,  inside  of  which  is  a  tablet 
bearing  the  inscription: 


DAVID  THORNTON. 

Born  ijqb.      Died  1873. 
Bttng  itali  fit  jet  aptaketfi. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  443 

In  April  of  this  year  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  at 
the  Franklin  District  Conference,  Tenn.,  previous  to 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  bishops  in  Nashville. 

In  Nashville,  he  preached  on  Sunday  morning  at 
Savvrie  Chapel.  His  episcopal  district  for  the  year 
embraced  the  four  conferences  lying  in  the  State 
of -Texas. 

On  the  12th  of  June  he  passed  through  New  Or- 
leans, en  route  to  the  Brookhaven  District  Conference 
at  Beauregard;  and  on  the  21st  we  meet  with  him  in 
Memphis,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  on  his  way  to 
Kentucky  to  attend  the  district  conference  in  Elkton. 
Between  these  two  conferences,  he  preached  at  Love 
Station,  and  dedicated  the  church,  which  had  just 
been  completed. 

The  Kentucky  Conference  met  at  Lexington,  Sep- 
tember 3d.  Bishop  McTyeire  presided.  As  Bishop 
Kavanaugh's  work  did  not  begin  until  October  15th, 
it  was  convenient  .for  him  to  be  present.  Fifty  years 
had  passed  since  he  had  entered  the  itinerant  ranks, 
and  it  was  appropriate  that  he  should  preach  a  semi- 
centennial sermon  before  the  body.  In  advance  of 
the  conference  he  was  invited  to  do  so,  and  had  ac- 
cepted the  invitation. 

On  his  appearance  in  the  conference  room  the 
following  paper  was  unanimously  adopted : 

"  It  is  eminently  proper  that  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference should  give  expression  in  a  suitable  manner 
to  their  profound  sense  of  the  divine  goodness,  in 
prolonging  to  so  great  a  length  the  life  and  efficient 
labors  of  our  venerable  brother,  Bishop  H.  H.  Kav- 
anaugh. We  rejoice  in  the  grace  of  God,  which  has 


444  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

sustained  him  in  the  arduous  labors  of  a  ministry  which 
has  now  reached  its  fiftieth  year.  Starting  from  the 
humblest  place  in  the  Church,  he  has  passed  in  reg- 
ular gradation  through  every  efficient  station  in  the 
Church — exhorter,  junior  preacher,  senior  preacher, 
stationed,  presiding  elder,  agent  for  our  educational 
interests,  and  bishop.  His  great  intellect  and  spot- 
less life,  ramifying  themselves  through  all  these  de- 
partments of  labor,  have  been  seen  and  felt  in  the 
achievement  of  grand  results.  Upon  his  character 
and  career  neither  blot  nor  suspicion  has  ever  rested. 
It  is  the  peculiar  pride  of  the  Kentucky  Conference 
that  his  life  of  uncomplaining  toil,  unswerving  devo- 
tion to  duty,  and  of  exemplary  purity,  constitutes  so 
large  a  portion  of  their  heritage.  We  thank  God  for 
the  grace  that  is  in  him;  and  we  recommend  to  the 
conference  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolutions: 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  always  a  sincere  gratification 
to  have  Bishop  Kavanaugh  present  at  the  sessions  of 
this  conference,  in  whatever  capacity  he  may  appear. 

"Resolved,  That  wherever  in  the  providence  of 
God  he  may  be  called  in  the  discharge  of  his  official 
duties,  he  bears  with  him  our  filial  regards,  and  our 
earnest  prayer  for  the  preservation  of  his  useful  life." 

The  bishop  in  a  most  touching  manner  responded, 
thanking  the  conference  for  their  esteem,  prayers,  and 
well-wishes,  and  hoped  he  would  prove  worthy  of 
their  confidence. 

On  Sunday  evening,  September  7th,  a  large  audi- 
ence assembled  to  listen  to  the  semi-centennial  sermon. 
Fifty  years  had  come  and  gone.  The  men  who  had 
joined  the  Kentucky  Conference  the  same  year  that 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  445 

he  did  had  all  crossed  over  the  last  river,  and  only 
one  who  had  preceded  him  in  the  conference,  Isaac 
Collard,  was  there  to  answer  to  the  roll-call.  With 
the  freshness  and  vigor  of  his  earlier  years,  this  ven- 
erable man  still  went  in  and  out  among  his  brethren, 
urging  them  to  a  higher  life  by  his  example,  and  to 
the  faithful  prosecution  of  their  work  by  his  zeal. 
The  occasion  was  a  grand  one.  Standing  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  present  and  the  past,  identi- 
fied with  the  fortunes  of  Methodism  for  two  genera- 
tions, names  long  before  passed  away,  but  leaving  a 
sweet  savor,  crowded  upon  his  memory.  How  bright 
the  constellation.  Side  by  side,  he  had  labored  for 
long  years  with  Bascom,  Lakin,  Stamper,  Lindsey, 
Crouch,  and  others,  who  had  gone  where — 

"  Everlasting  Spring  abides, 
And  never-withering  flowers." 

These  would  all  pass  in  review  before  him,  while 
the  conquests  of  the  Church,  in  the  achievements  of 
half  a  century,  would  re-animate  his  zeal,  and  kindle 
afresh  his  ardor  in  his  Master's  service.  The  sermon 
was  written,  crowded  with  ennobling  thoughts.  The 
manuscript  lay  before  him.  Never  before  had  he  at- 
tempted to  read  a  sermon.  The  role  was  a  new  one, 
the  task  difficult.  As  he  proceeded  he  warmed  with 
his  subject,  and  then  unwritten  recollections  rushed 
upon  his  mind,  and  turning  away  from  his  manu- 
script, he  bounded  into  a  world  of  facts  and  of  fancy, 
and  carried  his  audience  to  the  summit  of  Pisgah, 
from  whence  they  might  see  the  promised  land.  But 
he  could  not  dwell  forever  amid  the  beauties  of  the 
heavenly  Eden.  He  returned  to  the  manuscript;  but 


446  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

alas,  he  had  forgotten  where  he  had  left  off,  or  could 
not  find  the  place  where  he  must  begin  again.  The 
situation  was  embarrassing — the  stillness  was  like 
the  hush  of  death.  Recovering  at  length  from  the  di- 
lemma, once  more  he  read  ;  and  then  thoughts  grander 
than  he  had  penned  forced  themselves  upon  him,  and 
again  he  explored  that  world  of  beauty  and  of  joy 
whither  so  many  of  his  fellow-laborers  had  gone,  and 
whose  streets  of  gold  they  were  then  treading.  And, 
once  more  returning  to  his  manuscript,  his  eyes  re- 
fused to  see  where  he  had  stopped  or  where  he  should  be- 
gin. For  a  long  time  he  plodded  through  the  remain- 
der of  the  sermon,  fully  aware  of  the  disadvantage 
under  which  both  he  and  the  audience  had  labored. 

The  Louisville  Conference  met  in  Russellville, 
October  1st.  Bishop  Keener  presided.  Bishop  Kav- 
anangh  still  had  time  to  attend  the  session  and  reach 
Dallas,  Texas,  by  the  29th  of  October. 

He  was  requested  to  preach  the  semi-centennial 
sermon  in  Russellville,  and  the  appointment  was  an- 
nounced for  Sunday  evening. 

On  Sunday  morning,  he  sent  word  to  a  brother  to 
call  immediately  at  his  room.  The  summons  was 
promptly  obeyed.  The  manuscript  of  the  bishop  was 
placed  in  his  hands,  with  the  request  to  read  it  aloud. 
The  reading  occupied  one  hour  and  five  minutes. 

"  You  will  read  that  sermon  to-night,"  said  the 
bishop. 

"At  the  church  ?"  asked  his  friend. 

"  Yes,  at  the  church,"  was  the  prompt  answer. 

"  I  can  not ;  the  people  expect  you  to  preach,  and 
would  be  disappointed." 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  447 

"  But  you  will  not  refuse  me.  It  took  me  two 
hours  and  ten  minutes  to  read  it  at  Lexington,  and  you 
have  read  it  in  half  the  time.  Besides,  I  frequently 
lost  the  place ;  and  you  must  not  decline." 

How  could  he  interpose  further  objections? 

Sunday  evening  came.  The  church  was  filled  to 
overflowing.  The  opening  services  were  conducted 
by  the  bishop,  after  which  he  said : 

"  I  must  avail  myself  of  the  aid  of  a  brother  to 
stand  in  my  place  before  you  this  evening.  The  ser- 
mon you  have  come  to  hear  is  written,  and  must  be 
read  in  your  presence.  I  am  a  poor  reader.  I  at- 
tempted to  read  it  at  Lexington,  but  I  made  a  bung- 
ling of  it.  It  took  me  more  than  two  hours  to  do 
so ;  but  I  will  not  regret  any  failure  that  attended  it. 
Some  of  the  preachers  of  Kentucky  have  adopted 
the  terrible  habit  of  reading  their  sermons,  and  I 
think,  after  hearing  me  in  that  role,  they  have  become 
so  disgusted  that  they  will  never  attempt  it  again. 
Dr.  Redford  will  fill  my  place  this  evening." 

It  was  certainly  an  embarrassing  position  to  be 
placed  in,  but  the  bishop  assumed  the  responsibility 
of  the  result.  The  sermon  was  so  grand  that  the 
preacher  was  forgotten.  Nor  was  our  embarrassment 
relieved  on  the  following  morning,  when  Dr.  Sohon, 
our  presiding  elder  in  representing  us  in  the  confer- 
ference,  said  :  "  Dr.  Redford  preached  a  very  fine  ser- 
mon last  evening,  but  the  universal  impression  is 
that  it  was  not  his  own." 

The  bishop  reached  the  Trinity  Conference  in  due 
time,  and  gave  great  satisfaction.  "  On  Thursday 
evening  he  preached  to  a  packed  house.  The  discourse 


448  LIFE   AND    TIMES   OF 

was  one  of  his  great  sermons,  and  occupied  in  its  de- 
livery one  hour  and  a  half.  It  is  surprising  with  what 
power  the  bishop  wields  his  battle-ax.  There  seems 
to  be  in  the  pulpit  no  diminution  of  his  physical  or 
mental  powers.  His  faith  is  strong,  his  love  abounds, 
and  his  zeal  knows  no  abatement." 

On  Sunday  he  preached  again.  "The  morning 
opened  with  a  heavy  rain,  yet  the  congregation  was 
large,  and  for  nearly  one  hour  and  a  half  he  enchained 
the  congregation." 

During  the  session  of  the  Trinity  Conference  he 
received  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Bishop  Early, 
who  died  in  great  peace  in  Lynchburg,  Virginia,  No- 
vember 5,  1873. 

The  East  Texas  Conference  was  held  at  Palestine. 
"Jefferson  Shook,  Levi  R.  Dennis,  Acton  Young,  and 
N.  W.  Burks  had  died  during  the  year.  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh,  by  request,  preached  a  memorial  sermon,  when 
the  character  and  labors  of  these  men  were  portrayed. 
The  sermon  was  able,  and  produced  a  very  fine  im- 
pression." He  was  present  at  the  three  remaining 
conferences  in  Texas — at  Waco,  at  Lockhart,  and  at 
Austin — everywhere  winning  upon  the  hearts  of  his 
brethren. 

At  Waco  he  preached  from  the  text,  "The  re- 
demption of  tneir  soul  is  precious,  and  it  ceaseth  for- 
ever." The  rostrum  of  the  chapel  of  the  Female  Col- 
lege was  the  pulpit.  The  Rev.  R.  H.  H.  Bennett,  in 
a  letter  to  us,  says^  "  My  verdict  at  that  time  was  that 
in  wondrous  nights  of  eloquence  he  could  soar  higher 
and  remain  up  longer  and  descend  more  gracefully 
than  any  man  I  had  ever  heard." 


BISHOP  K A  VAN  A  UGH.  449 

He  remained  in  Texas  several  weeks  after  the  close 
of  the  conference  at  Austin,  the  last  on  his  round, 
preaching  and  laboring  in  the  cause  of  his  Master. 

Leaving  Texas  he  spent  a  few  days  in  the  vicinity 
of  Thibodeaux,  Louisiana,  and  was  in  New  Orleans  on 
his  way  to  Kentucky,  on  the  15th  of  February,  "  in 
excellent  health." 

After  his  return  home  he  spent  the  interim  between 
then  and  the  General  Conference  in  visiting  Churches 
convenient  to  him,  and  preaching  almost  every  Sunday. 

The  General  Conference  met  in  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky, May  1,  1874.  The  episcopal  district  of  Bishop 
Kavauangh  for  this  year  embraced  the  Arkansas,  White 
River,  and  Little  Rock  Conferences.  During  the  Sum- 
mer he  attended  several  district  conferences,  among 
them  that  of  the  Shelbyville  District,  which  met  in 
the  beautiful  village  of  Lagrange,  where  he  "  did  some 
of  his  best  preaching."  In  one  of  his  sermons  he  al- 
luded to  the  "  old  preachers  who  had  gone  from  the 
Kentucky  Conference  and  entered  heaven,  how  they 
would  make  inquiry  of«  every  new  arrival  from  the 
State  in  reference  to  their  brethren  below,  how  they 
are  prospering,  how  the  Church  is  prospering,  and 
how  the  kingdom  of  Satan  is  tottering."  Every  heart 
was  thrilled,  while  many  a  voice  said,  "  Amen."  He 
was  present  also  at  Winchester,  where  the  Lexington 
District  Conference  was  held,  and  at  Shepherdsville, 
the  seat  of  Elizabethtown  District  Conference,  preach- 
ing at  both  places  with  great  power. 

He  was  in  his  seat  October  28th,  at  Fort  Smith, 
Arkansas,  and  at  Searcy,  November  llth,  where  the 
White  River  Conference  met. 

38 


450  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

At  the  White  River  Conference,  just  before  the 
appointments  were  announced,  he  delivered  to  the 
preachers  an  appropriate  address.  After  alluding  to 
the  noble  calling  of  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  he  said 
to  the  class  that  had  just  entered  the  ranks,  "My 
young  brethren,  you  are  entering  upon  the  highest 
calling  known  to  men;  in  it  you  may  expect  to  meet 
with  many  trials,  yet  you  have  the  assurance  that 
Jesus  is  your  refuge;  then  let  him  be  your  trust. 
Trust  him  in  every  trial,  and  trust  him  to  end  of  life. 
Your  calling  is  a  hard  one;  difficulties  lie  along  your 
path,  poverty  and  privation  may  await  you,  but  [and 
he  smiled]  an  item  right  here — I  have  never  .since  I 
entered  the  ministry  been  entirely  out  of  money,  but 
I  have  been  reduced  to  a  dime."* 

The  session  of  the  Little  Rock  Conference  was  a 
very  pleasant  one,  and  was  frequently  referred  to  by 
Bishop  Kavanaugh  in  later  years. 

*  Letter  from.  Rev.  J.  F.  Jernigan. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  451 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

FROM  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  BISHOPS  IN  MAT,  1875, 
TO  THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE  OF  1878. 

AT  their  meeting  in  May,  1875,  the  bishops  made 
a  full  survey  of  the  work  throughout  the  con- 
nection, and  laid  their  plans  for  the  ensuing  year. 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  appointed  to  the  Colum- 
bia, Pacific,  and  Los  Angeles  Conferences. 

The  previous  visit  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh  to  the 
Pacific  Coast  was  in  1866,  where  he  remained  two 
years.  After  an  absence  of  eight  years  from  that 
interesting  field,  he  will  again  climb  its  mountains 
and  traverse  its  valleys. 

It  had  for  several  years  been  the  wish  of  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  to  establish  a  permanent  camp-ground  at 
some  suitable  point  in  his  native  State,  as  a  monu- 
ment to  the  success  that  had  been  achieved  through 
this  means,  and  as  a  standing  testimony  that  the  true 
worship  is  not  confined  to  "houses  built  with  hands," 
but  that  anywhere  beneath  the  God-built  sky  prayer 
and  praise  might  reach  His  ear.  Before  leaving  for 
California,  he  addressed  the  following  circular  to  the 
preachers  of  the  Kentucky  and  Louisville  Conferences : 

"  LOUISVILLE,  KY.,  July  28,  1875. 
"DEAR  BROTHER, — I  respectfully  solicit  the  co- 
operation of  yourself  and   your  congregation   in  the 


452  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

establishment  of  a  permanent  camp-meeting  ground, 
for  the  Kentucky  and  Louisville  Annual  Conferences 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  With 
this  view,  before  I  leave  for  the  Pacific  Coast,  you 
are  invited  to  attend  a  basket-meeting  in  the  woods 
on  the  west  side  of  the  turnpike  road,  between 
Beard's  Station  and  Floydsburg,  seventeen  miles  east 
of  Louisville,  on  Friday,  Saturday,  Sunday,  and 
Monday,  August  13,  14,  15,  16,  1875. 

"Yours,  truly,  H.  H.  KAVANAUGH." 

At  this  meeting  there  was  opportunity  for  con- 
sultation, and  it  was  determined  to  establish  a  per- 
manent camp-ground  in  Oldham  County,  Ky.,  near 
Beard's  Station,  on  the  Short  Line  Railroad,  seventeen 
miles  from  the  city  of  Louisville,  on  the  line  between 
the  Kentucky  and  Louisville  Conferences. 

In  this  labor  of  love  the  bishop  was  assisted  by 
several  preachers  and  laymen,  prominent  among  whom 
were  Revs.  D.  Welburn,  T.  F.  \7anmeter,  T.  B.  Cooke, 
J.  F.  Bedford,  J.  H.  Linn,  G.  W.  Brush,  J.  P.  Good- 
win, H.  C.  Morrison,  T.  J.  McCoy,  and  Messrs.  Levi, 
Barnhill,  Yaughan,  and  Oglesby. 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  purchased  one-half  of  a  tract 
of  land  of  about  one  hundred  acres,  and  soon  after 
the  remaining  half  was  purchased  by  T.  J.  McCoy.* 

*In  this  labor  of  love  they  soon  had  the  assistance  of 
others.  A  part  of  this  land  was  turned  over  by  the  preachers 
to  a  board  of  trustees,  who  obtained  a  charter,  and  commenced 
work  under  the  name  of  the  KAVANAUGH  CAMP-MEETING  AS- 
SOCIATION. It  was  found  inconvenient  and  expensive  to  get 
this  board  together  in  the  interims  of  the  meetings,  and  hence 
an  executive  committee  was  elected  to  attend  to  all  the  inter- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  453 

It  was  certainly  gratifying  to  have  associated  with 
himself  on  the  Committee  Thomas  F.  Vanmeter  and 
Burd  C.  Levi.  He  had  received  Mr.  Vanmeter  into 
the  Church,  and  licensed  him  to  exhort.  But  few 
men  so  different  in  age  were  more  familiar  with  each 
other.  Bishop  Kavanaugh  had  been  his  beau  ideal 
of  a  Methodist  preacher  ever  since  he  had  known 
him,  and  Mr.  Vanmeter  enjoyed  the  highest  confidence 
of  the  bishop.  Burd  C.  Levi  was  a  distinguished  lay- 
man in  the  Church,  devoted  to  its  welfare,  and  ready 
to  spend  and  be  spent  for  his  beloved  Methodism. 
The  appointment  of  these  brethren  with  the  bishop 
insured  the  success  of  the  enterprise. 

After  maturing  his  plans  for  the  camp-meeting, 
on  the  19th  of  August  Bishop  Kavanaugh  and  wife 
left  Louisville  for  California.  Quite  a  number  of 
their  friends  met  them  at  the  depot,  where  a  touching 

ests  of  the  association,  and  to  prepare  for  the  yearly  gather- 
ings. That  committee  was  composed  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  Rev. 
T.  F.  Vanmeter,  and  B.  C.  Levi ;  and  they  have  had  control  and 
management  of  the  same  ever  since,  the  board  of  trustees 
meeting  only  once  a  year. 

A  pavilion  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  eighteen  hundred  dol- 
lars, paid  for  by  donations.  Mr.  McCoy  then  erected,  at  his 
personal  expense,  a  chapel  and  hotel,  and  inclosed  the  grounds 
by  a  good  fence.  He  also  built  a  dormitory,  paying  for  this  all 
except  six  hundred  dollars,  which  the  association  paid.  He 
and  the  bishop  then  gave  to  the  association  a  deed  for  thirty 
acres  of  land,  all  they  needed,  of  the  original  tract  purchased 
by  them.  Since  then  the  association  has  purchased  fifteen 
acres,  to  give  them  a  better  road  from  the  depot  to  the  ground. 
From  what  has  been  given  and  made,  the  property  is  now 
worth  about  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  is  held  for  the  good  of 
the  Church  and  to  improve  the  property,  no  dividends  accru- 
ing to  any  individual. 


454  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

address  was  delivered  by  Dr.  Sehon,  to  which  the 
bishop  responded  very  happily,  after  which  an  affec- 
tionate farewell  was  taken  of  the  bishop  and  Mrs. 
Kavanaugh. 

We  hear  nothing  further  from  him  until  he  reaches 
the  golden  shore,  when  he  appears  at  Woodbridge,  on 
the  29th  of  August,  and  dedicates  a  new  church.  "  The 
congregation  was  large,  the  sermon  by  the  bishop  mag- 
nificent." On  Sunday  afternoon  he  went  to  Stockton, 
and  "  preached  to  the  great  delight  of  the  people  at 
night." 

He  entered  upon  his  work  in  a  spirit  that  indi- 
cated that  he  intended  to  make  "  full  proof  of  his 
ministry." 

After  spending  some  time  in  California,  he  writes 
to  Dr.  Summers,  giving  an  account  of  his  travels  from 
Omaha — of  the  "  grand  and  imposing  scenery  "  on  which 
he  looked,  the  "wide-spread  Valleys,"  the  "occasional 
sight  of  deer  and  antelopes."  The  "  Sierra  Nevada 
mountains,  capped  with  eternal  snow,"  excited  his 
wonder;  and  then,  as  though  he  had  encountered  no 
obstacle,  he  exclaims,  "  O,  how  glorious  is  the  climate 
of  California ! " 

In  referring  to  this  trip  to  California,  Mrs.  Emma 
Hardacre,  now  of  Cincinnati,  writes : 

"  Several  years  ago  I  traveled  from  St.  Louis  to 
San  Francisco  in  the  same  car  with  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh and  wife.  It  was  my  first  acquaintance  with  the 
genial  Southerner,  one  of  the  warmest,  sweetest,  gen- 
tlest-uatured  of  men.  In  writing  to  the  Courier- 
Journal  at  that  time,  I  said :  (  My  nearest  car-neigh- 
bor is  a  very  stout,  smooth-faced  gentleman,  with 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  455 

grayish-brown  hair,  which  is  cut  short  and  stands 
like  the  quills  of  the  fretful  porcupine.  He  has  a  big 
nose,  small  eyes,  and  heavy  jaws.  His  small,  hand- 
some hands  rest  upon  a  gold-headed  cane,  and  much 
of  the  time  he  is  apparently  in  deep  thought.  He  is 
very  gentle  and  unassuming,  and  modest  in  his  man- 
ners. By  his  side  is  a  tiny  lady,  with  silvery  curls 
about  her  face.  She  is  handsomely  dressed,  and  has 
a  bright  smile  for  every  one ;  but  the  big  man  at  her 
side  is  evidently  her  chief  care  and  pride.  She  is 
never  still  a  moment.  She  brushes  his  coat  with  her 
little  gloved  hand ;  she  pours  cologne  on  a  handker- 
chief, and  waves  it  about  as  if  to  fumigate  him ;  she 
spies  a  sunbeam  that  is  about  to  find  its  way  to  her 
husband's  thoughtful  eyes,  and  instantly  it  is  put  out- 
side the  blind.  When  the  little  lunch-table  is  set  up 
in  the  sleeper  she  tucks  a  napkin  about  him,  butters 
his  bread,  puts  jelly  upon  it,  pats  it  gently  with  the 
knife  before  she  gives  it  to  him.  The  whole  repast 
is  in  honor  of  her  husband,  and  every  delicacy  is 
heaped  upon  him.  They  make  me  think  of  a  hum- 
ming-bird and  a  pumpkin  blossom.  Large  and  open- 
hearted  and  golden-hearted  is  the  flower,  and  also  the 
bishop.  The  pumpkin  blossom  is  not  swayed,  like  the 
frail  morning-glory,  with  every  passing  breeze ;  but 
firm  and  very  lowly,  and  almost  hidden  by  the  leaves 
of  its  humility,  it  blooms  close  to  our  feet,  uncon- 
scious that  it  is  the  largest  and  most  regal  flower  in 
the  garden.' 

"  Several  months  after  this  trip  I  saw  the  bishop 
and  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  in  a  carriage  coming  from  the 
steamer  at  Sautu  Barbara.  I  w;is  on  the  .sidewalk. 


456  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

When  I  advanced  to  the  carriage  which  had  halted, 
the  ponderous  man  looked  at  me  sternly,  and  said,  '  I 
hear  that  you  called  me  a  pumpkin  flower.  I  do  not 
know  whether  I  ought  to  speak  to  you  or  not;  but 
another  paper  took  it  up  and  said  that  you  were  not 
far  from  the  truth,  for  every  body  acknowledged  that 
Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  "some  pumpkins,"  so  I  will 
forgive  you.' 

"  Then,  how  the  lips  wreathed  in  the  girlish  smile 
that  all  his  friends  remember;  how  cordially  his  hands 
reached  out  of  the  carriage  to  help  me  in ;  how  his 
shoulders  shook  with  the  laughter  that  was  as  merry 
as  a  child's!  What  a  happy  drive  that  was  that  the 
little  wife  and  the  great  preacher  and  I  had  that  early 
morning  up  State  Street  of  Santa  Barbara,  while  the 
freshness  of  the  surf  was  just  back  of  us,  the  moun- 
tains in  front,  and  December  fruit  and  flowers  in  the 
gardens  that  we  passed !  The  bishop  was  at  that  time 
engaged  in  his  official  duties  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  The 
thousands  of  miles  that  he  traveled  yearly  never  seemed 
to  fatigue  him,  neither  did  the  scenery  lose  its  beauty. 
No  one  sooner  noticed  a  gorgeous  sky,  a  lichened  rock, 
or  a  wayside  flower.  I  remember,  in  crossing  the 
plains,  how  every  body  else  was  tired  and  impatient 
of  the  alkali  stretches,  while  the  veteran  traveler  sat 
looking  with  happy  eyes  at  the  great  expanse  of  arid 
brightness,  so  harmoniously  blended  into  the  gray  sage- 
brush. I  remember,  also,  a  little  drive  we  took  to 
see  the  famous  big  grape-vine  of  Monticello,  which 
covers  an  area  of  nine  thousand  square  feet ;  it  is 
supported  on  an  arbor  as  big  as  a  farm.  Under  its 
branches  I  recall  the  bishop  sitting,  hat  off,  the  shad- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUOH.  457 

ows  of  the  vine  playing  about  him.  I  remember 
his  saying  to  us,  as  he  loo.ked  down  the  valley 
of  the  Monticello  off  to  the  ocean,  up  to  the  en- 
circling mountains,  in  a  voice  filled  with  emotion, 
'  I  have  lived  in  this  beautiful  world  for  seventy-six 
years ;  it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  never  seen  so 
beautiful  a  landscape,  or  felt  so  balmy  an  air/ 
Then  dropping  his  voice  to  a  cadence  which  I  shall 
never  forget,  Jie  added,  '  I  have  never  felt  so  over- 
poweringly  the  mercy  and  power  and  majesty  of  our 
God.' 

"  At  another  time  we  were  going  to  the  Mountain 
Hot  Springs  Hotel,  which  we  saw  plastered  like  a 
wasp's  nest  to  the  side  of  the  mountain  wall  above  us. 
The  road  was  so  steep  that  it  seemed  as  if  our  wagon 
would  go  backward  in  somersaults  down  the  incline. 
The  bishop  and  myself  were  on  the  back  seat  of  the 
open  vehicle,  with  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  facing  us.  The  "* 
four  horses  were  going  in  a  gallop  up  this  fearful 
place,  urged  on  by  voice  and  whip  of  the  Spanish 
driver.  We  all  sank  to  our  knees  and  held  on  to  the 
wagon  for  dear  life,  letting  our  umbrellas  sway  around 
like  anchored  balloons.  One  lurch  and  we  fell  against 
them,  and  only  a  rattling  bunch  of  rattan  and  steel 
remained.  When  the  horses  reached  the  hotel  door, 
the  bishop's  cane  must  be  found,  our  hats  straight- 
ened, and  a  general  toilet  supervision  made  before  we 
could  descend  with  propriety  from  the  wagon.  We 
laughed  until  the  tears  ran  down  our  cheeks,  and  our 
shouts  were  echoed  by  the  gray  mountains  that,  al- 
though they  looked  solemn,  must  have  been  merry 

old  fellows  at  heart,  for  they  laughed  as  loud  as  any 

30 


458  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

of  us,  flinging  back  peal  after  peal  to  our  demoralized 
party. 

"  The  acquaintance  begun  in  the  palace-car  across 
the  continent  ripened  into  the  warmest  friendship. 
The  man's  simplicity  and  happiness  were  charming 
in  one  aged  and  exalted  as  he.  He  never  seemed  to 
think  of  himself,  or  to  consider  his  claims  as  worth 
considering,  and  the  lack  of  stiffness  or  holy  bigotry 
was  remarkable  in  a  religious  leader. 

"  At  a  class-meeting  one  time,  where  many  had 
given  lengthy  experiences,  the  bishop  rose  in  his  pro- 
verbially meek  way,  saying,  '  I  love  Jesus.  He  first 
loved  me.'  That  was  all.  But  what  more  could  have 
been  added? 

"  At  another  time  he  said,  after  a  very  tearful  and 
lugubrious  session  at  a  home  Church,  '  Sister,  religion 
appears  to  be  such  a  hard  thing  for  some  people.' 

"  During  all  the  time  I  have  known  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh  he  never  asked  me  to  what  Church  I  belonged. 
He  from  the  first  called  me  '  sister,'  with  the  natural- 
ness that  indicated  we  were  all  children  of  one  Father. 
He1  did  not  have  to  stop  and  think  whether  he  should 
say  ( sister,'  whether  I  was  really  one  of  the  elect — 
one  saved  by  grace.  It  was  ( sister'  just  the  same, 
said  with  an  affection  as  sincere  and  hearty  as  if  we 
were  really  children  of  one  father — a  parent  whom 
we  mutually  loved.  I  can  but  say  now — what  I  often 
said  to  friends  during  the  good  man's  life — that  he 
was  the  most  unostentatious,  happy,  beautiful  Chris- 
tian that  I  ever  knew. 

"  He  has  left  fewer  unkind  words  and  more  gen- 
tle deeds;  has  said  less  in  praise  of  himself  or  in  blame 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  459 

of  others ;  has  lived,  no  less  than  preached,  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ. 

"  For  three  Summers  I  have  gone  down  into  Ken- 
tucky, from  wherever  I  chanced  to  be,  to  attend  Bishop 
Kavanaugh's  camp-meeting.  It  is  a  little  rest  of  a 
few  weeks  which  he  has  from  conference  work,  and 
which  he  devotes  to  an  old-fashioned  camp-meeting 
on  the  Kavanaugh  Camp-grounds,  near  Louisville. 
Then  he  was  not  busy  with  executive  business;  then 
we  talked  over  our  past  journeys  and  adventures; 
then  in  the  woods,  in  the  evening  hour,  before  the 
bell  called  to  prayer,  the  little  group  about  him  heard 
his  reminiscences  of  noted  preachers. 

"  I  could  go  on  with  these  remembrances  of  good 
Bishop  Kavanaugh.  I  love  to  talk  of  him — the  good, 
kind  man !  But  I  remember  especially  one  lovely 
day,  the  last  on  that  beautiful  camp-ground.  The 
congregation  under  the  trees  were  singing,  '  Sweet 
fields,  beyond  the  swelling  flood.'  The  bishop  had 
just  come  from  his  prayerful  ramble,  and  carried  in. 
his  hand  a  great  bunch  of  flowers  that  he  had  gath- 
ered in  the  forest.  The  landscape  above  us  was  beau- 
tiful. The  white  clouds  drifted  like  snow-banks  against 
the  violet  background  of  the  sky;  the  leaves  of  the 
oak,  the  beech,  the  linn  formed  an  inner  pavilion  un- 
der the  great  sky. 

"  Are  those  '  sweet  fields,'  I  thought,  more  exquisite 
than  this  world's  wide  heather  of  the  twilight  sky,  its 
changeful  arbors  of  sunset,  wreathed  with  roses  red 
and  yellow,  or  its  midnight  crocus-bed  of  stars?  What 
heavenly  garland  can  be  more  exquisite  than  the  velvet- 
leaved  vine  that  is  hooped  about  the  gray  trunk  of 


460  LJFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

the  lichened  beech?  If  such  exquisite  finish  be  given 
our  earth-home,  our  camp  but  for  a  night,  what  the 
splendor  lavished  upon  the  ( continuing  city/  the  '  eter- 
nal home ! '' 

"  Last  October  I  happened  to  meet  Bishop  and 
Mrs.  Kavanaugh,  as  they  were  starting  on  their  South- 
ern trip.  They  had  purchased  a  beautiful  place  in 
Anchorage,  Kentucky,  with  fine  forest  trees  surround- 
ing, which  was  to  be  the  bishop's  home  when  age 
forced  him  to  give  up  work.  '  I  want  a  home  for  my 
old  age ;  I  am  but  eighty-two.  I  have  traveled  over 
nine  thousand  miles  this  year,  but  still  I  have  got  my 
home  ready  now  to  rest  in  when  age  overtakes  me. 
We  shall  be  back  m  April.  You  have  a  room  in  our 
new  house — hasn't  she,  wife?  Say  you  will  come  in 
April,  when  we  return,  and  make  us  a  visit;  eh,  wife?' 
What  kindly,  happy  words  came  back  to  me,  as  the 
train  bore  them  away  !  I  am  glad  to  remember  that 
the  little  wife  was  with  him  to  the  last,  careful  and 
devoted ;  that  he  died  in  the  harness,  as  he  wished ; 
that  although  there  will  be  no  visit  to  the  beautiful 
Southern  home  in  April,  God  has  given  him  '  a  bet- 
ter,' into  which  I,  too,  may  come." 

At  the  Columbia  Conference,  held  in  Albany, 
Oregon,  he  preached  three  times,  and  delivered  the 
missionary  address. 

On  Sunday  morning  he  dedicated  the  new  church 
in  Albany,  "  proving  to  his  vast  audience,  who  hung 
with  rapture  on  his  burning  words,  that  his  bow  still 
abides  in  strength."  The  writer  adds,  "  Though  he 
has  reached  the  age  of  seventy-four,  his  eye  is  not 
dimmed  nor  his  natural  force  abated.  His  sermon 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGR.  461 

was  a  masterpiece  of  logic,  impassioned  eloquence, 
holy  unction,  and  power." 

From  California  he  went  to  Oregon  on  a  steamer — 
the  same  vessel  that,  twenty  years  before,  had  taken 
him  from  Panama  to  San  Francisco.  The  sea  was 
rough,  and  the  voyage  devoid  of  interest. 

Upon  landing  at  Portland,  he  had  a  cordial  recep- 
tion from  the  pastor  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  while  in  the  prosecution  of  his  journey  he 
met  with  many  friends.  Albany,  the  seat  of  the  Co- 
lumbia Conference,  is  "one  of  the  several  beautiful 
towns  that  adorn  the  far-famed  valley  of  the  Willa- 
mette River." 

He  was  delighted  with  the  conference;  preachers 
and  people  won  his  heart,  while  the  future  of  the 
Church  he  was  so  faithfully  serving,  as  it  opened  be- 
fore him,  cheered  him  in  his  labors.  He  preached 
often,  not  confining  himself  to  his  own  branch  of 
Methodism — going  also  into  Presbyterian  churches, 
to  proclaim  the  message  of  life. 

After  the  close  of  the  Columbia  Conference,  he 
visited  Corvallis,  and  then  Portland,  Oregon,  then 
Eugene  City,  preaching  all  along  the  route,  and  on  to 
Roseburg,  where  Stahl  and  Bell  and  Davies  assisted  him 
in  a  meeting ;  after  which  he  went  to  Jacksonville  Cir- 
cuit, and  preached  two  days  and  nights.  Taking  leave 
of  Roseburg,  he  journeyed  to  Canyonville,  where  he 
preached.  He  at  length  entered  Rogue  River  Valley, 
where  at  the  hotel  he  rested  well  for  the  night. 

He  held  near  Jacksonville  what,  he  says,  "we 
called  a  camp-meeting;"  after  which  he  journeyed  to 
Ashland,  and  "  preached  in  a  -large  school-house," 


462  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

which  was  crowded  by  people  eager  to  hear  the 
words  of  life.  We  next  find  him  at  Yreka,  about 
fifty  miles  from  Roseburg.  From  Yreka  he  traveled 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  to  Redding  by  stage, 
and  thence  by  rail  to  Sacramento.  From  Sacramento 
he  went  to  San  Francisco,  from  which  place  he  has- 
tened to  San  Jose,  that  he  might  be  present  at  a 
camp-meeting  near  that  place,  where  he  could  remain 
but  one  Sabbath,  having  to  return  to  San  Jose  on 
Monday  to  be  in  time  for  the  Pacific  Conference. 

The  labors  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh  during  his  stay 
on  the  Pacific  Coast  can  hardly  be  estimated.  They 
were  immense.  He  was  expected  to  attend  the  an- 
nual meeting  of  the  bishops  in  May,  1876 ;  but  we  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  him,  dated  at  Petaluma,  April  llth, 
informing  us  that  he  could  not  be  present,  but  that 
he  would  return  to  Kentucky  in  June.  Grand  old 
man !  there  was  work  to  be  done  in  that  distant  field, 
and  he  was  willing  to  forego  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
with  his  colleagues  to  accomplish  it.  The  Colusa 
District  Conference  meets  at  Chico,  and  the  bishop 
presides;  and  whenever  duty  makes  its  levy  on  his 
energies  and  his  time,  he  pays  the  assessment. 

At  the  meeting  in  May,  his  colleagues  assign  him 
to  the  West  Virginia,  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  and  Baltimore  Conferences. 

Late  in  June,  we  meet  with  him  in  St.  Joseph, 
Missouri,  on  his  return  to  his  home,  where  he  was 
resting  a  few  days  on  account  of  the  intense  heat, 
which  had  well-nigh  prostrated  his  excellent  wife. 
While  there  he  preached  in  Francis  Street  Church  a 
missionary  sermon,  raising  a  handsome  collection; 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  463 

and  then  at  night  he  preached  again,  with  great  profit 
to  the  people. 

He  makes  his  appearance  in  Kentucky  in  ample 
time  to  arrange  for  a  camp-meeting  at  Paroquet 
Springs,  twenty  miles  from  Louisville,  on  the  Nash- 
ville Railroad,  the  Kavanaugh  Camp-ground  not  yet 
being  ready. 

The  meeting  was  commenced  August  10th,  and 
embraced  two  Sundays.  Among  the  distinguished 
preachers  who  were  present,  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  a 
commanding  figure,  preaching  and  laboring  as  in  the 
past. 

The  Kentucky  Conference,  held  in  Nicholasville, 
commenced  on  the  13th  of  September.  Bishop 
Keener  presided. 

Before  leaving  home  for  Western  Virginia  Confer- 
ence, where  his  episcopal  labors  would  begin,  he  called 
by  Nicholasville  and  spent  a  short  time.  Dr.  Miller 
writes :  "  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  present  two  days,  and 
gladdened  our  hearts  with  his  genial  spirit  and  godly 
counsels.  It  is  said  that  there  are  districts  in  North 
Carolina  that  are  still  voting  for  Andrew  Jackson  for 
the  presidency.  We  can  appreciate  the  generous  de- 
votion of  the  North  Carolinians  in  this.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  information  with  them.  It  is  explain- 
able upon  precisely  the  same  grounds  as  the  fact  that 
the  Kentucky  Conference  still  believes  that  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  is  ( a  member  at  large '  of  its  body." 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  preached  the  first  evening 
after  his  arrival.  The  Methodist  Church  was  crowded. 
We  had  a  seat  on  the  steps  of  the  pulpit.  He  was  in 
his  happiest  mood.  Every  eye  was  upon  him,  and 


464  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

every  ear  was  strained  to  catch  the  words  of  living 
truth  as  they  fell  from  his  lips,  when 'a  pallor  seemed 
to  settle  on  many  a  face.  The  impression  was  general 
that  the  pulpit  would  not  contain  him.  He  swayed 
from  right  to  left,  each  succeeding  moment  more  in- 
tensified with  the  grand  theme  he  was  presenting.  Just 
as  he  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  promised  land,  and  was 
unfolding  its  glories,  he  stepped  too  near  the  edge  of 
the  pulpit;  but,  while  falling,  strong  arms  caught  him 
and  bore  him  back.  During  this  incident,  the 
thread  of  the  sermon  was  not  broken.  While  all 
were  alarmed,  he  seemed  unconscious  of  what  was 
passing. 

On  the  20th  of  September,  we  were  with  him  at 
Charleston,  West  Virginia,  where  he  presided  over 
that  conference,  at  the  close  of  which  T.  S.  Wade,  the 
secretary,  wrote :  "  Our  beloved  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
was  with  us,  in  good  health,  and  presided  with  his 
usual  dignity  and  acceptability,  and  preached  with 
all  the  power  and  eloquence  of  his  earlier  days." 

On  the  first  day  of  October,  we  find  him  at  Belle- 
ville, West  Virginia,  engaged  in  the  dedication  of  a 
church. 

At  the  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Caro- 
lina Conferences,  he  was  equally  abundant  in  labors. 
At  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  he  preached  on 
Thanksgiving  Day  "  a  great  Gospel  sermon,  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost — such  a  sermon  as  becomes  a  bishop." 

From  South  Carolina  he  returned  home,  his  health 
somewhat  impaired  by  the  immense  labors  he  had 
performed.  He  was  confined  to-  his  room  for  several 
weeks;  but  as  soon  as  he  was  able  he  was  again  in 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  465 

the  field,  zealously  promoting  the  collections  for  the 
Publishing  House,  contributing  largely  himself. 

The  Baltimore  Conference  was  held  at  Alexan- 
dria, Va.,  commencing  March  7th.  Bishop  Kava- 
naugh  had  not  fully  recovered  his  strength,  and 
cheerfully  availed  himself  of  the  assistance  of  Bishop 
Doggett  during  the  session.  We  had  not  the  pleasure  of 
hearing  him  preach  on  Sunday,  as  we  were  serving 
at  another  church. 

Early  in  May,  in  speaking  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh, 
the  Lebanon  (Ky.)  Herald  says:  "This  venerable  and 
distinguished  prelate  preached  at  the  Methodist 
church  on  Sunday  morning  and  evening,  to  immense 
audiences.  His  sermons  produced  a  deep  impression. 
They  were  earnest,  logical,  profound,  and  eloquent — 
two  specimens  of  pulpit  oratory  such  as  are  not  often 
heard  within  twenty-four  hours." 

He  was  present  with  the  bishops  in  May  in  Nash- 
ville, but  subsequently  to  the  meeting  he  attended  the 
conference  for  the  Gallatin  District,  Tennessee  Con- 
ference; and  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the 
McKcndree  Church  he  delivered  an  appropriate  and 
eloquent  discourse. 

His  episcopal  work  for  1877  embraced  the  Illi- 
nois, Louisville,  Arkansas,  White  River,  and  Little 
Rock  Conferences. 

We  had  the  pleasure  of  being  with  him  at  the 
sessions  of  the  Illinois  Conference,  held  in  Nashville, 
111.,  and  the  Louisville  Conference,  in  Henderson, 
Ky.,  and  listened  with  pleasure  to  the  high  enco- 
mium passed  upon  him  in  both  places. 

Mrs.  Kavanaugh  accompanied  him  to  his  confer- 


466  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

ences  in  Arkansas,  and  won  golden  opinions  from  the 
preachers  and  people  everywhere  by  the  suavity  and 
gentleness  of  her  manners,  her  bright  and  cheerful 
face,  and  her  fine  conversational  powers;  while  the 
bishop  continued  to  occupy  the  high  eminence  to 
which  he  had  attained  in  his  former  visits. 

This  year  will  ever  occupy  a  prominent  place  in 
Southern  Methodism  as  the  year  in  which  Bishop 
Marvin  died.  He  had  visited  the  Church  in  China, 
and  just  returned  from  his  trip  around  the  world. 
We  were  with  him  at  the  Missouri  Conference,  Sep- 
tember 12th,  when  he  received  the  sad  intelligence 
by  telegram,  while  in  the  chair,  of  the  death  of  a 
brother.  Inviting  Dr.  Rush  to  the  chair,  he  retired 
to  his  room,  asking  us  to  accompany  him.  We  spent 
the  afternoon  with  him  in  close  Christian  fellowship. 
His  conversation  was  in  reference  to  the  sustaining 
power  of  religion  amid  the  bereavements  of  life,  and 
the  rich  reward  that  awaits  the  Christian  after  death. 

On  the  26th  of  November  he  died,  at  his  home  in 
St.  Louis,  of  pleuro-pneumonia.  The  Church  through- 
out its  borders  mourned  his  death,  and  in  China  tears 
were  shed  for  the  loss  of  one  so  useful  and  so  beloved. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  467 


xv. 


FROM   THE  GENERAL   CONFERENCE    OF  1878    TO    THE 
LEA  TH  OF  BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH. 


r  I AHE  eighth  session  of  the  General  Conference 
JL  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  began 
its  session  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  May  1,  1878. 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  present,  and  bore  well  his 
part  as  a  bishop  during  the  session. 

After  the  close  of  the  conference,  he  came  to 
Nashville,  spending  a  few  days  in  our  family.  He 
preached  by  previous  invitation  on  Sunday,  the  26th, 
in  the  afternoon,  at  Vanderbilt  University,  a  sermon 
before  the  Biblical  class,  on  Acts  xx,  24.  A  minister 
who  was  present*  said  :  "The  venerable  bishop  seemed 
to  emulate  the  great  apostle  in  testifying  the  gospel 
of  the  grace  of  God,  which  he  charged  the  young  di- 
vines to  preach  in  all  its  purity,  grandeur,  and  power." 

In  the  plan  of  episcopal  visitation  for  1878,  his  field 
of  labor  embraced  the  Illinois,  Tennessee,  Holston, 
Florida,  North  Alabama,  and  Alabama  Conferences. 
Before  the  time  for  his  conferences  to  begin,  he  held 
a  basket-meeting"  at  Kavanaugh  Camp-ground,  and  a 
few  weeks  later  he  held  a  camp-meeting  at  the  same 
place,  where  he  labored  with  untiring  energy. 

In  the  meantime,  he  attended  several  district  con- 
ferences, among  them  the  one  held  at  Allensvillc, 

*Kev.  T.  O.  Summers,  D.D. 


468  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Ky.,  for  the  Russellville  District,  where  he  preached 
twice.  "  His  sermon  on  the  office  of  Christ  was  re- 
plete with  intelligent  thought  and  soul-encouraging 
doctrine."  Speaking  of  the  final  chorus  of  the  re- 
deemed, he  said :  "  I  never  could  carry  a  tune  here ; 
but  when  I  join  the  general  assembly  and  Church  of 
the  first-born  in  the  skies,  tune  or  no  tune,  I'll  try 
to  sing." 

Before  leaving  Southern  Kentucky,  he  visited  his 
old  friend,  Hugh  Barclay,  in  Russellville,  who  was  in 
feeble  health,  remaining  two  days,  and  preaching  one 
evening  to  a  large  congregation. 

He  was  also  present  at.  the  Louisville  District 
Conference,  which  held  its  session  in  the  Walnut 
Street  Church,  where  "he  preached  with  extraordi- 
nary power." 

Never  was  Bishop  Kavanaugh  more  in  his  element 
than  in  charge  of  a  camp-meeting.  Bishop  McTyeire 
was  in  attendance,  as  was  also  Bishop  Wiley,  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  whose  sermons  were 
spoken  of  in  the  highest  terms.  He  entered  upon  his 
episcopal  work  at  Pana,  Illinois,  September  llth, 
and  closed  the  round  at  Mobile,  Alabama,  December 
17th,  presiding  with  acceptability,  and  preaching  with 
power,  at  the  several  conferences  he  attended. 

At  the  Holston  Conference,  the  testimony  was 
that,  "  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  as  he  does  everywhere, 
sustained  himself  as  one  of  the  most  gifted  of  Ameri- 
can preachers."  An  eminent  physician  in  Knoxville 
said :  "I  do  not  believe  he  has  a  superior  in  the 
pulpit."  His  sermon  in  Church  Street  Church, 
Knoxville,  on  Sunday,  "  was  a  model  of  sublime  and 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  469 

eloquent   thought,  delivered  with   remarkable  fervor 
and  effect." 

At  the  Alabama  Conference,  Dr.  Summers,  who 
was  present,  said  of  him :  "  In  the  chair,  on  the  plat- 
form, and  in  social  intercourse,  he  won  golden  opin- 
ions of  preachers  and  people." 

He  did  not  reach  home  from  the  Alabama  Con- 
ference until  late  in  February,  1879,  and  after  resting 
for  a  few  weeks,  entered  upon  a  round  of  district 
conferences. 

The  first  was  held  for  Ashley  District,  Illinois  Con- 
ference, March  20th  to  23d ;  the  second  at  Lewisport, 
Ky.,  for  the  Owensboro  District,  Louisville  Confer- 
ence, April  llth  to  13th.  We  next  follow  him  to  Mt. 
Sterling,  Ky.,  April  26th  to  27th,  the  seat  of  the  Lex- 
ington District  Conference.  From  there  he  proceeded 
to  Tennessee,  and  held  the  Clarksville  District  Con- 
ference at  Ashland,  May  1st  to  4th. 

Soon  after  the  conference  at  Ashland,  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  bishops  was  held,  after  which  he  at- 
tends the  conference  for  McMinnville  District,  at 
MeMinnville,  May  22d  to  25th. 

From  the  Tennessee  he  goes  to  the  Holston  Con- 
ference, and  is  present  at  the  conferences  for  the 
Chattanooga,  the  Athens,  the  Wytheville,  and  the 
Jefferson  Districts,  closing  this*  department  of  his 
work  on  the  22d  of  June. 

Early  in  July,  he  passes  through  Nashville,  en 
route  to  his  home  in  Louisville. 

His  camp-meeting  was  appointed  to  begin  July 
17th,  in  which  it  was  expected  that  he  would  bear  a 
prominent  part,  and  he  did  so.  Dr.  Alpheus  W. 


470  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Wilson,  now  Bishop  Wilson,  preached  the  opening 
sermon.  The  text  was  Eph.  i,  15-23.  The  effect 
produced  was  excellent. 

He  visited  the  Kentucky  Conference,  held  in 
Richmond,  where  Bishop  Doggett  presided,  and  then 
attended  the  Indiana,  the  first  in  his  round  for  the 
present  year.  It  was  held  in  Gosport.  He  was  the 
guest  of  Dr.  Smith,  a  Kentuckian,  at  whose  house  we 
had  the  pleasure  of  being  entertained  with  the  bishop. 
He  preached  several  times  with  great  profit  to  the 
people,  and  on  Sunday  afternoon  addressed  the  Sun- 
day-school. 

On  his  return  to  Kentucky,  on  the  fourth  Sunday 
in  October,  he  dedicated  the  new  Methodist  Church 
in  Caverna,  and  after  a  most  remarkable  sermon  sev- 
eral hundred  dollars  were  collected  to  pay  the  debt 
that  rested  upon  it. 

He  met  the  Memphis  Conference  at  Mayfield, 
November  19th,  and  the  North  Mississippi  at  Water 
Valley,  December  3d,  at  both  of  which  he  enjoyed 
"times  of  refreshing."  His  lecture  in  December,  1879, 
at  Greenville,  Miss.,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  was  a  grand  success. 
His  theme  was  man,  his  origin,  nature,  relations,  obli- 
gations, and  destiny.  The  impression  made  is  not  yet 
obliterated. 

His  last  conference  on  the  round  was  the  Missis- 
sippi, held  at  Meridian,  commencing  December  17th, 
where  "the  bishop  won  every  heart  to  him." 

The  early  part  of  the  year  1880  he  spent  the  most 
of  his  time  in  attending  district  conferences  in  Indi- 
ana, Memphis,  and  Mississippi  Conferences,  preaching 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  471 

the  commencement  sermon  for  Whitworth  Female 
College,  in  Mississippi,  June  27th,  having  been  pres- 
ent at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  bishops  in  May.  In 
July  he  dedicated  a  church  in  Cave  City,  Kentucky, 
and  August  5th  entered  upon  the  labors  of  the  camp- 
meeting  at  Kavanaugh  Camp-ground,  bearing  an 
equal  part  in  pulpit  and  altar  with  the  younger 
preachers. 

To  Bishop  Doggett  the  conferences  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  were  assigned,  but  his  feeble  health  indicated 
that  he  would  not  be  able  to  attend  them.  On  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  devolved  the  necessity  of  supplying  his 
place.  Before  doing  so  he  attended  the  Illinois  Con- 
ference at  Marion,  the  Indiana  at  Nashville,  preach- 
ing at  the  latter  place  a  funeral  sermon  in  memory 
of  Rev.  T.  A.  Feltner,  and  then  the  Louisville  at 
Glasgow,  leaving  his  work  in  Texas  to  be  supplied 
by  some  other  bishop. 

After  holding  the  Louisville  Conference  he  made 
his  arrangements  to  leave  for  California,  and  with 
Mrs.  Kavanaugh  was  soon  on  his  long  journey. 

Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  now  in  his  seventy-ninth 
year,  and  had  visited  this  distant  field  four  times  pre- 
vious. On  reaching  the  Occident  he  was  never  more 
gladly  welcomed.  His  popularity  and  influence  had 
increased  with  eac"h  successive  visit. 

Bishop  Doggett,  whose  place  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
was  going  to  fill,  died  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  Octo- 
ber 27,  1880,  just  about  the  time  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
left  for  California.  Bishop  Doggett  had  but  few 
peers  in  the  American  pulpit.  Pure  in  life,  his  death 
was  triumphant. 


472  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

After  attending  the  Pacific  and  Los  Angeles  Con- 
ferences, "  he  spent  a  month  in  visiting  different  local- 
ities where  his  services  had  been  solicited."  He  then 
visited  Santa  Rosa,  then  Sacramento,  whose  "  Public 
Library  and  Art  Gallery  are  interesting  resorts  to  the 
visitor,"  and  where  Bishop  Kavanaugh  spent  his  sev- 
enty-ninth birthday.  Colusa  was  the  next  point  that 
shared  the  labors  of  this  extraordinary  man. 

He  was  not  present  at  the  meeting  of  his  col- 
leagues in  May,  preferring  to  remain  in  California  and 
Oregon  until  after  the  sessions  of  the  conferences  in 
1881,  making  his  last  foot-prints  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
and  where  his  marks  were  deep  and  distinct.  "He 
is  preaching  through  that  vast  territory  the  pure 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  with  the  vigor  of  a  man  of 
forty,  and  the  wisdom  of  a  man  of  twice  that  number 
of  years."  His  health  and  the  power  of  his  pulpit 
work,  and  the  contagion  of  his  cheerful  faith  in  God 
and  the  Gospel,  told  happily  upon  the  Church  in 
that  field. 

On  the  25th  of  August  he  was  at  Corvallis,  Oregon, 
holding  the  Columbia  Conference,  and  at  the  Angeles, 
held  in  Carpenteria,  California,  September  15th.  On 
the  28th  of  September  we  find  him  in  Petaluma, 
holding  the  Pacific  Conference. 

Soon  after  the  adjournment  of  tne  Pacific  Confer- 
ence he  turns  his  face  towards  his  home,  from  which 
he  had  been  so  long  absent.  His  labors  in  California 
and  Oregon  would  make  a  large  volume,  and  if  we 
take  into  consideration  his  affection  for  the  Church  in 
those  States,  its  size  would  be  greatly  augmented. 
Many  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  had  been  passed  on 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  473 

these  beautiful  plains  and  majestic  mountains;  but  now 
he  had  completed  his  work,  and  was  looking  on  the 
vine-clad  hills  of  California  and  the  snow-capped 
mountains  of  Oregon  for  the  last  time. 

On  his  way  home  he  stops  at  Helena  and  holds 
the  session  of  the  Montana  Conference,  and  thirteen 
days  later,  on  the  27th  of  October,  we  find  him  at 
Denver,  Colorado,  presiding  over  the  Denver  Confer- 
ence. Before  reaching  Kentucky,  duty  calls  him  to 
Texas,  where  he  holds  the  North-west  Texas,  the 
North  Texas,  and  East  Texas  Conferences,  preaching 
all  along  the  route  with  matchless  power,  winning 
golden  opinions  from  the  people,  and  gathering  fruit- 
age for  his  Master. 

The  account  of  his  labors  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the 
platform  in  Helena,  given  by  a  member  of  the  Mon- 
tana Conference,  is  a  fair  sample  of  his  work  every- 
where on  his  route  from  Petaluma  to  his  Kentucky 
home.  He  says:  "Bishop  Kavanaugh  fully  sustained 
his  reputation  as  one  of  the  leading  pulpit  orators  of 
the  day.  He  was  greeted  at  both  Butte  and  Helena 
with  immense  audiences,  and  held  them  spell-bound 
for  an  hour  and  a  half  or  more  at  each  service.  I 
feel  thankful  for  the  message  of  this  ancient  servant 
of  God.  I  believe  that  his  sermon  on  Sunday  will 
bear  fruit  in  eternity.  In  his  audiences  were  the  £lite 
of  Helena,  and  they  were  held  in  rapt  attention  for 
nearly  two  hours,  while  the  speaker  discoursed  upon 
repentance  toward  God  and  faith  toward  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  It  was  a  most  faithful  and  powerful 
presentation  of  the  cardinal  truths  of  the  Gospel.  I 
thought  I  never  heard  the  enormity  of  sin  and  its 

40 


474  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

results  so  forcibly  presented.  Then  the  love  of  God 
in  the  gift  of  his  Son,  the  atonement,  repentance,  jus- 
tification by  faith,  regeneration,  and  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit  were  clearly  and  powerfully  illustrated. 
Thank  God  for  this  visit  to  Montana,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  Bishop  Kavanaugh  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus !" 

On  Saturday  evening,  "  he  gave  us  a  grand  mis- 
sionary speech." 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1882,  the  bishop  was 
eighty  years  of  age.  The  Methodist  preachers  in  the 
city  of  Louisville,  on  the  9th  of  the  mouth,  mistak- 
ing that  day  for  the  anniversary  of  his  birthday, 
called  on  him  and  tendered  their  good  wishes,  to 
which  he  responded  in  touching  language. 

A  letter  from  Louisville,  dated  January  23,  1882, 
says:  "Our  dear  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  Kentucky's 
favorite  preacher,  is  at  home  again,  enjoying  a  short 
rest,  except  on  Sundays." 

He  reached  home  in  time  to  attend  the  funeral  of 
his  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Charlotte  Thornton,  a  woman 
no  less  distinguished  for  her  high  culture  than  for 
her  beautiful  Christian  life.  She  died  in  Versailles, 
Ky.,  January  31,  1882. 

She  was  the  wife  of  David  Thornton,  of  whom 
mention  has  already  been  made  in  this  volume,  shed- 
ding happiness  upon  her  home,  while  for  nearly  sixty 
years  she  "walked  with  God." 

The  following  beautiful  tribute  to  her  memory, 
from  the  pen  of  her  pastor,  Rev.  E.  H.  Pearce,  de- 
serves to  be  placed  in  a  permanent  form : 

"Mrs.  Charlotte  Thornton  died  January  31,  1882, 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  475 

at  her  residence  in  Versailles,  Ky.,  one  of  the  noblest 
of  earth,  a  name  written  as  in  the  caption,  and  also 
in  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life.  For  some  accidental 
delay  in  this  notice  since  the  time  of  her  departure, 
to  myself,  at  least,  there  is  the  compensation  of  a  rec- 
ollection rising  at  once  with  such  strength  and  ten- 
derness that  I  am  reminded  that  time  can  never 
efface  the  memory  of  one  of  the  most  exalted  women 
I  have  ever  known  in  this  life.  The  pilgrimage  had 
been  close  to  the  fourscore  of  years — nearly  or  quite 
sixty  of  these  walking  close  with  God.  In  young 
womanhood  she  sought  earnestly  at  the  altar  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  and  was  powerfully  converted.  It 
was  a  change ;  she  knew  it — she  testified  to  it  con- 
tinually with  devoted  remembrance.  Only  a  few 
hours  previous  to  her  departing  breath  she  told  me 
it  was  'difficult  to  tell  when  Christ  seemed  nearer — 
in  the  hour  of  conversion  or  then,  in  the  valley  and 
shadow,  when  the  everlasting  arms  were  about  her/ 
United  in  early  womanhood  to  the  late  and  lamented 
David  Thornton,  she  found  in  him  a  noble  compan- 
ionship in  the  love  and  service  of  Christ  Jesus. 
Many  a  weary  itinerant  Methodist  preacher,  long  be- 
fore the  day  of  turnpikes  and  railroads,  found  a 
welcome  home  at  the  house  of  David  and  Charlotte 
Thornton.  Through  the  long  years  of  their  union, 
how  firmly  they  stood  as  pillars  in  the  Church  of 
God!  Children  came  and  were  taken,  but  Christ 
was  all  in  all.  Business  success  and  adversity  came, 
but  neither  the  tide  of  the  one  nor  the  storm  of  the 
other  removed  the  anchor  from  the  rock.  SOILS  and 
daughters  grew  to  honored  manhood  and  useful 


476  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

womanhood,  but  vows  of  consecration  were  breathed 
upon  them,  and  they  went  forth  as  loving  laborers 
and  devoted  workers  in  the  vineyard  of  God.  At 
last  the  bereaved  wife  and  aged  mother  stood  alone 
as  the  head  of  the  home.  Rarer  and  more  radiant 
than  the  sublimest  scenes  of  earth  was  the  moral  sub- 
limity of  this  heroine  of  faith,  as  she  calmly  but 
courageously  dwelt,  waiting  for  God,  and  yet  watch- 
ing and  working  for  him  until  he  should  say,  ( It  is 
finished.'  When  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  as  her  kinsman 
and  life-long  associate,  spoke  the  last  words  of  her 
memorial  to  the  great  congregation,  the  light  of  her 
life  seemed  resting  on  every  heart,  lingering  as  a 
beam  from  the  great  white  throne. 

"  "  Sudden  our  pathway  turned  from  night ; 
The  hills  swung  open  to  the  light ; 
Through  their  green  gates  the  sunshine  showed, 
A  long  slant  splendor  downward  flowed. 
Down  glade,  and  glen,  and  bank  it  rolled ; 
It  bridged  the  shaded  stream  with  gold, 
And,  borne  on  piers  of  mist,  allied 
The  shadowy  with  the  sunlit  side  ! 
'  So,'  prayed  we,  '  when  our  feet  draw  near 
The  river  dark  with  mortal  fear, 
And  the  night  cometh  chill  with  dew, 
O  Father !  let  thy  light  break  through  ! 
So  let  the  hills  of  doubt  divide, 
So  bridge  with  faith  the  sunless  tide !' " 

On  the  15th  of  February,  1882,  the  intelligence 
of  the  death  of  Bishop  "VVightman,  which  occurred 
that  morning,  flashed  over  the  wires.  His  sickness 
was  protracted,  but  borne  with  sweet  resignation  to 
the  will  of  his  Heavenly  Father.  Although  his  death 
was  not  unexpected,  yet  there  was  mourning  through- 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGB.  477 

out  the  Church.  A  good  and  great  man  had  fallen, 
but  he  fell  at  his  post. 

On  the  last  Sabbath  in  February  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh  was  in  Nashville,  and  preached  at  West  End 
an  excellent  sermon. 

The  General  Conference  was  fast  approaching.  It 
met  in  the  city  of  Nashville,  May  3d,  and  at  the  re- 
quest of  Bishop  Paine,  the  senior  bishop,  the  confer- 
ence was  opened  by  Bishop  Kavanaugh.  During  the 
session  he  presided  alternately  with  the  other  bishops, 
and  performed  his  portion  of  the  work,  in  the  pulpit 
as  well  as  in  the  conference  room. 

In  the  distribution  of  episcopal  labor  he  had  as- 
signed to  him,  for  this  year,  only  two  conferences,  the 
South  Georgia  and  the  Florida. 

The  episcopal  college  had  been  strengthened  by 
the  election  of  four  additional  bishops,  and,  as  he  had 
reached  his  fourscore  years,  it  was  deemed  expedient 
to  lighten  the  burden  he  had  borne  so  willingly  and 
so  long.  Although  his  mental  vigor  remained  unim- 
paired, yet  it  could  not  but  be  evident  that  his  phys- 
ical force  was  yielding  to  the  heavy  tax  which  had 
been  imposed  upon  it.  His  gait  was  less  steady,  and 
there  was  less  elasticity  in  his  motive  powers.  He 
did  not,  however,  perceive  the  situation,  or,  if  so,  did 
not  accept  it.  He  continued  to  labor  as  in  the 
strength  of  his  mature  manhood.  He  preached  the 
commencement  sermon  for  Howard  College,  Mo.,  at- 
tended district  conferences,  and  conducted  the  Kav- 
anaugh Camp-meeting,  which  continued  several  weeks, 
performing  his  part  of  the  pulpit  labor  with  the 
preachers  who  assisted  him. 


478  LIFE   ANb   TIMES  OF 

The  following  invitation  to  attend  the  laying  of 
the  corner-stone  of  the  Battle  Monument,  at  Blue 
Lick  Springs,  was  sent  him ;  but  whether  he  accepted 
or  not  we  are  not  advised : 

"  OFFICE  OF  '  BLUE  LICK  BATTLE  MONUMENT  ASSOCIATION,'  ) 
CARLISLE,  KY.,  July  20,  1882.         J 

"  REV.  H.  H.  KAVANAUGH  : 

"Dear  Sir, — The  undersigned  Committee  of  Cor- 
respondence and  Invitation  beg  leave  to  tender  you, 
in  behalf  of  the  'Battle  Monument  Association/  a 
special  and  earnest  invitation  to  be  present  at  the 
solemn  ceremonies  of  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone 
of  the  '  Battle  Monument/  at  the  '  Blue  Lick  Springs/ 
August  19,  1882.  It  is  the  earnest  wish  of  the  Com- 
mittee that  you  should  offer  the  prayer  to  Almighty 
God  for  his  blessing  upon  the  work  begun  by  the 
Committee,  to  honor  and  perpetuate  the  names  and 
sacrifices  of  the  heroic  pioneers  who  fell  a  victim  upon 
that  bloody  field  one  hundred  years  ago,  in  defense 
of  home,  honor,  and  country.  The  Committee  beg 
to  assure  you  that,  as  the  head  of  a  great  body  of 
Christians,  and  still  more  as  a  loved  father  in  Israel, 
honored  by  all  people  of  every  creed,  it  is  their  ear- 
nest wish  that  you  will  accept  this  trust,  and  thereby 
gratify  the  Committee,  as  well  as  the  great  body  of 
people  who  will  be  present  on  that  occasion. 

"Awaiting  your  prompt  and  favorable  reply,  we 
have  the  honor  to  be,  very  truly,  yours,  etc., 

"W.  P.  Ross,  W.  A.  MOERIS, 

"J.  H.  PIPER,  J.  A.  CHAPPELL, 

"B.  F.  REYNOLDS, 

"  Committee. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  479 

"  The  Committee  will  beg  you  to  consider  your- 
self as  their  guest,  and  will  assure  you  safe  and  com- 
fortable private  conveyance  to  and  from  Carlisle  to 
the  Springs." 

Before  he  entered  upon  his  tour  of  conferences 
another  of  his  colleagues  in  the  episcopal  office  passed 
from  labor  to  reward.  Bishop  Robert  Paine  died  at 
his  residence  in  Aberdeen,  Miss.,  October  18,  1882. 
Since  Bishop  Kavanaugh's  elevation  to  the  office 
of  bishop  six  members  of  the  episcopal  college  had 
crossed  over  the  last  river  and  entered  upon  eternal 
life. 

The  South  Georgia  Conference  met  in  Albany, 
Ga.,  December  13th;  and,  after  presiding  over  that 
body,  Bishop  Kavanaugh  proceeded  to  Jacksonville, 
Fla.,  where  on  the  3d  of  January  he  met  the  Florida 
Conference.  The  session,  as  had  been  that  of  the 
South  Georgia  Conference,  was  remarkably  pleasant. 
He  remained  in  that  sunny  land  for  several  weeks 
after  the  adjournment  of  the  conference,  preaching 
the  Gospel  and  inviting  sinners  to  Christ.  Mrs. 
Kavanaugh  .was  with  him.  February  llth,  he  ded- 
icated the  church  in  Leesburg,  preaching  "  with 
marked  ability  and  power,"  with  no  abatement  of  zeal 
or  intellectual  force. 

On  his  return  home  he  preached  at  nearly  every 
point  he  passed  to  admiring  crowds.  He  was  present  at 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  bishops  in  Nashville,  May 
1,  1883,  and  was  assigned  to  the  Virginia,  Mississippi, 
and  Louisiana  Conferences.  He  spent  the  Summer 
in  visiting  Churches  and  preaching,  holding  several 


480  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

district  conferences,  scarcely  a  Sunday  passing  with- 
out finding  him  in  the  pulpit,  and  generally  both 
morning  and  evening. 

He  conducted  his  annual  camp-meeting,  which 
continued  over  two  Sabbaths. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1883  he  made  his  last  visit  to 
Versailles,  a  place  he  loved  well,  where  his  first  wife 
and  all  his  children  were  buried.  The  occasion  was 
the  re-dedication  or  reopening  of  the  Methodist  church, 
which  had  undergone  a  thorough  renovation.  He  was 
the  pastor  of  the  Church  in  that  beautiful  town  at 
the  time  of  his  elevation  to  the  episcopal  office.  He 
had  preached  there  oftener,  perhaps,  than  at  any  other 
place  in  Kentucky,  but  was  never  more  happy  in  de- 
livering his  message  than  on  this  occasion. 

We  had  written  to  him,  and  invited  him  to  spend 
a  Sabbath  in  Bowling  Green  and  preach  to  the  peo- 
ple of  our  charge.  He  had  not  preached  there  since 
1844,  and  we  felt  desirous  that  his  voice  should  be 
heard,  especially  by  the  younger  people,  proclaiming 
the  tidings  of  a  Redeemer's  love,  before  he  closed  his 
labors  and  his  life.  We  met  him  at  the  depot,  and 
conducted  him  to  the  pleasant  home  of.  Dr.  T.  B. 
Wright,  where  he  was  elegantly  entertained. 

His  visit  to  Bowling  Green  embraced  the  first 
Sabbath  in  September.  He  preached  morning  and 
evening,  to  large  audiences,  and  with  great  power, 
and  to  the  delight  and  profit  of  the  people.  If  he 
was  the  first  preacher  from  whom  we  heard  the  Gos- 
pel, nearly  sixty  years  before,  it  seems  to  have  been 
appropriate  that  in  the  pulpit  of  which  we  had  charge 
his  last  sermon  in  Kentucky  .should  be  preached. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  481 

The  Virginia  Conference,  the  first  in  his  round, 
was  to  meet  in  Richmond,  November  14th.  On  the 
first  of  November,  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Kavanaugh, 
he  left  home  for  Virginia. 

He  first  stopped  in  Lynchburg,  where  he  preached 
one  sermon.  He  next  went  to  Petersburg,  to  which 
city  he  was  invited  to  address  the  Woman's  Mission- 
ary Society.  From  thence  he  went  to  Richmond, 
where  he  preached,  on  the  Sabbath  preceding  the 
conference,  at  Union  Church. 

In  Richmond  he  met  Bishop  Pierce,  whom  he  had 
invited  to  be  with  him  and  assist  him  in  the  duties 
of  the  occasion.  Bishop  Hargrove  was  also  present, 
and  aided  in  lightening  his  work.  During  the  con- 
ference, he  preached  on  Sunday  at  Broad  Street;  and 
after  the  close  of  the  session  he  spent  a  Sabbath  and 
preached  at  Centenary. 

Referring  to  his  visits  to  the  Virginia  Conference, 
a  member  of  that  body  writes :  "  His  preaching  on 
these  occasions  made  the  deepest  impressions,  and  will 
never  be  forgotten  by  those  who  chanced  to  hear  him. 
Fortunately  for  me,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  entertain- 
ing him  and  his  excellent  wife  at  my  bouse  in  Dan- 
ville, in  last  November,  soon  after  the  close  of  our 
last  conference  at  Richmond,  Va.,  and  heard  him 
preach  a  sermon  in  my  pulpit  on  the  text,  'Bless  the 
Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  all  that  is  within  me  bless  his 
holy  name/  which  was  seldom,  if  ever,  equaled  by 
himself  or  any  living  preacher  of  the  Gospel  in  the 
elements  of  pulpit  power  and  effectiveness.  It  is 
hard  to  realize  that  he  who  preached  with  such  elo- 
quence, showing  no  signs  of  mental  or  physical 
41 


482  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

decline,  has  passed  away  under  the  weight  of  more 
than  eighty -two  years."* 

From  Richmond  he  went  to  Danville;  and  from 
thence  to  Augusta,  Ga.,  fifteen  miles  from  which  city 
he  dedicated  Kavanaugh  Chapel.  From  Augusta  he 
went  to  Jackson,  Miss.,  where  he  spent  a  few  days, 
and  preached  on  the  Sabbath ;  and  from  thence  to 
Natchez,  the  seat  of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  over 
which  he  presided  "  without  any  manifestation  of  im- 
patience, which  is  so  common  with  men  of  his  age. 
As  to  his  spiritual  power  in  his  talk,  there  was  no 
diminution.  His  talk  to  the  young  preachers  received 
into  full  connection  was  the  most  impressive  and  in- 
structive I  ever  listened  to.  I  see  from  your  pub- 
lished notice  that  you  claim  that  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
was  the  favorite  preacher  of  Kentucky.  You  might 
have  added,  of  the  entire  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South."  f 

After  leaving  Natchez  he  spent  a  Sabbath  at  Vicks- 
burg,  where,  in  the  morning,  he  preached  in  the  Meth- 
odist church,  and  in  the  evening  at  the  Presbyterian. 
From  Vicksburg  he  went  to  Monroe,  La.,  on  a  brief 
visit  to  Judge  Richardson,  the  brother  of  Mrs.  Kav- 
anaugh, on  which  occasion  he  dedicated  a  church, 
fifteen  miles  from  Monroe.  He  also  preached  in 
Monroe  during  the  week. 

The  Louisiana  Conference  was  to  be  held  in  Min- 
den,  but  was  changed  to  New  Orleans.  Quite  a  num- 
ber of  preachers  were  on  the  same  boat  with  the 
bishop  on  his  way  from  Monroe  to  the  seat  of  the 

*  Letter  from  Rev.  Alex.  G.  Brown,  dated  March  27,  1884. 
t  Extract  from  letter  from  Rev.  W.  Spillman. 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  483 

conference.  Bishop  Kavanaugh  preached  on  the  boat 
on  the  6th  of  January.  The  text  was  Hebrews  ii, 
14, 15 :  "  Forasmuch  then  as  the  children  are  par- 
takers of  flesh  and  blood,  he  also  himself  likewise 
took  part  of  the  same,  that  through  death  he  might 
destroy  him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is  the 
devil ;  and  deliver  them  who  through  fear  of  death 
were  all  their  lifetime  subject  to  bondage."  "The 
bishop's  theme  was  just  such  an  one  as  God  would 
direct  the  mind  to  as  the  Christian  nears  the  top  of 
Pisgah — the  trials  and  triumph  of  faith" 

"By  some  strange  combination,  this  was  the  first 
and  only  sermon  I  ever  heard  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
preach,  though  I  had  been  a  traveling  preacher  for 
twenty-three  years.  I  knew  his  fame,  which  had 
spread  through  all  the  Church,  but  was  astonished 
above  measure  at  the  vigor,  spiritual,  intellectual,  and 
physical,  which  the  Bishop  manifested  on  that  oc- 
casion. 

"As  he  followed  the  Christian's  struggling  faith 
through  the  suffering  and  bondage  of  sinful  wander- 
ings, he  literally  held  in  sympathizing  fellowship  the 
incarnate  God  close  by  his  side.  It  was  inspiring  as 
life  given  anew  to  the  dead ;  while  the  bishop 
preached  he  was  not  old  nor  feeble.  His  mind  worked 
like  the  trained  intellect  of  a  vigorous  student  in  the 
prime  of  life.  His  motion  was  quick  and  smooth,  like 
that  of  an  athlete.  His  voice  was  round  and  full. 
At  times  he  seemed  to  be  under  the  Shekinah,  his  face 
glowed,  there  was  about  him  a  halo  of  glory."* 

The  conference   met   January  9th.      He  presided 

'Letter  to  Mrs.  Kuvanaugh  from  Rev.  J.  A.  Parker. 


484  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

over  the  conference  with  grace  and  ease,  by  his  ur- 
banity and  gentleness  winning  the  hearts  of  the 
preachers  and  the  audience.  His  birthday,  the  14th 
of  January,  occurred  during  the  session.  On  the 
BISHOP'S  BIRTHDAY,  after  the  conference  had  re- 
sumed regular  business,  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Walker,  D.  D., 
advanced  to  the  platform,  accompanied  by  little  Miss 
Phala  McTyeire  Lyons,  who  carried  a  basket  of  beau- 
tiful flowers  and  evergreens,  which  she  handed  to 
Bishop  Kavanaugh.  Dr.  Walker  remarked  that,  in 
commemoration  of  his  eighty-second  birthday,  the 
conference  had  requested  him  to  present,  as  a  token 
of  their  regard,  affection,  and  esteem,  these  lovely 
flowers,  also  an  elegant  gold-headed  ebony  cane.  Dr. 
Walker,  with  his  peculiar  grace  and  eloquence,  ex- 
pressed the  gratitude  of  the  conference  to  God  in 
granting  them  the  pleasure  of  enjoy  ing  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh's  presence  among  them. 

He  had  hardly  concluded  when  the  Rev.  James 
A.  Ivy  presented  to  the  bishop  an  elegantly  bound 
copy  of  the  New  Testament,  printed  in  pica  type,  and 
in  a  most  happy  manner  expressed  his  joy  at  seeing 
him  so  well  and  hearty  at  his  advanced  age.  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  received  his  birthday  presents  with  great 
feeling.  During  the  utterance  of  his  words  of  thanks, 
the  pretty  little  girl  of  six  Summers,  who  had  pre- 
sented the  flowers,  turned  her  bright  face  up  to  the 
bishop,  and  he,  with  gentle  courtesy,  stooped  and 
kissed  her.  This  act  brought  tears  to  many  a  manly 
face  in  the  audience. 

After  the  close  of  the  conference,  he  lingered  in 
New  Orleans  for  several  weeks,  that  he  might  for 


BISHOP  KA  VANA  UGH.  485 

awhile  enjoy  that  pleasant  climate  before  he  started 
homeward.  After  preaching  in  several  of  the  Meth- 
odist churches  in  the  city,  he  spent  his  last  Sabbath  in 
that  city  with  his  friend,  Rev.  Dr.  Markham,  the 
pastor  of  Lafayette  Presbyterian  Church.  In  speak- 
ing of  this  occasion,  Dr.  Markham  wrote  under  the 
caption  of  "  The  Old  Man  Eloquent,"  the  following 
tribute: 

"  The  congregation  of  the  Lafayette  Presbyterian 
Church,  New  Orleans  (Rev.  Dr.  Markham,  pastor), 
enjoyed,  Sabbath,  February  10th,  one  of  those  rare 
pleasures  esteemed  by  all  lovers  of  truth  and  of  the 
Word.  It  was  their  privilege  to  listen  to  an  expo- 
sition of  Scripture  from  the  lips  of  a  preacher  who, 
for  threescore  years,  had  been  proclaiming  its  un- 
searchable riches. 

"Short  of  stature,  and  round  and  full  in  person, 
the  embodiment  of  sturdy  strength,  this  veteran  of 
sixty  campaigns  wielded  his  weapons  with  the  vigor 
and  force  of  a  warrior  in  his  prime,  striking  blows 
that  divided  asunder  the  joints  of  the  harness  of  doubt 
and  error. 

"Speaking  from  John  xvi,  20, '  Verily,  verily  I  say 
unto  you,  that  ye  shall  weep  and  lament,  but  the 
world  shall  rejoice ;  and  ye  shall  be  sorrowful,  but 
your  sorrow  shall  be  turned  into  joy,'  he  reviewed  in 
graphic  presentation  the  hopes  excited  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  fears  aroused  on  the  other,  by  the  life  and 
character,  the  words  and  works  of  Jesus ;  the  disap- 
pointment and  chagrin  of  his  disciples  at  his  death, 
with  their  overwhelming  mortification,  as  their  ene- 
mies, taunting  and  jeering,  asked,  *  Where  now  is 


486  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

your  God?'  and  the  reaction,  as  their  sorrow  was 
turned  into  joy  in  the  triumphant  vindication  wrought 
by  his  resurrection  and  ascension,  in  the  destruction 
of  that  '  last  enemy,'  under  whose  power  he  had  been 
permitted,  for  a  time,  to  lie.  So  that,  with  point  and 
power,  Peter  could  pen  those  glowing  words  in  the 
opening  of  his  first  epistle,  in  which  he  blesses  'the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  their 
lively  hope  begotten  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead.' 

"  The  writer  would  not  venture  beyond  this  sug- 
gestive outline  of  a  discussion,  begun  with  a  deliber- 
ation of  speech  and  a  quiet  of  manner  that  made  the 
outset  seem  subdued  and  slow,  but  which  soon  rose 
into  a  glow,  which,  sustained  through  an  hour  and  a 
quarter  of  earnest  utterance  and  animated  movement 
(unhelped  by  manuscript  or  note),  arrested  and  fixed 
the  attention  of  the  well-filled  house,  in  which  young 
and  old  sat  interested,  instructed,  and  refreshed;  the 
thoughts  so  clear  and  the  words  so  plain  that  the 
young  in  their  teens  easily  apprehended  all  that 
was  said;  while  the  rich,  fresh  matter,  the  simple, 
chaste  style,  and  the  direct  and  pointed  manner,  made 
the  matured  and  aged  listen  with  profit  and  delight. 

"  The  Methodist  Church  is  to  be  congratulated  in 
that,  through  the  thirty  years  of  his  itinerancy  and 
the  thirty  of  his  episcopate — his  labors  covering  her 
extended  territory,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
(including  five  episcopal  visits  to  California)  —  her 
people  have  had  the  benefit  and'blessing  of  the  teach- 
ings of  one  so  manifestly  'anointed  and  set  apart;'  to 
whom  the  Spirit  has  revealed  the  deep  things,  open- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGIL  487 

ing  his  understanding  and  warming  his  heart  to  set 
forth  with  power  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of 
grace  and  the  anticipations  of  the  kingdom  of  glory. 

"  In  appearance  and  action,  twenty  years  younger 
than  the  age  which  time  has  'set  to  his  score,'  his 
bow  '  abides  in  strength.'  And,  save  in  a  slowness  of 
step,  due,  doubtless,  in  no  small  measure  to  an  un- 
usual weight  of  body,  scarce  a  trace  of  the  f  labor  and 
sorrow  of  the  fourscore '  can  be  seen.  So  that  he 
1  still  brings  forth  fruit  in  old  age.' 

"  The  venerable  brother  of  whom  I  write  is  Rev. 
Hubbard  Hinde  Kavanaugh,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the 
.Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  who,  after  the 
close  of  the  Louisiana  Conference,  remained  a  month 
in  our  city. 

"  Ministering  three  Sabbaths  in  churches  of  his  own. 
'  faith  and  order,'  and  speaking  on  a  week  evening  for 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  in  the  Bethel,  his  last  Sabbath  was 
with  us  in  this  morning  service,  followed  by  a  partici- 
pation, in  the  evening,  in  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  (Dr.  Palmer's)  in  the  services  held  by  the 
Sunday  League  of  Louisiana. 

"  Leaving  our  city  last  week,  he  bears  with  him  to 
his  home  in  Anchorage,  Ky.,  the  thanks  of  a  sister 
Church  for  '  a  feast  of  fat  things,  of  wine  on  the  lees 
well  refined.'  His  message,  so  fitly  spoken,  will  be 
held  in  grateful  remembrance — a  message  set  in 
words  that  were  '  as  nails  fastened  by  a  master  of  as- 
semblies,' that  proved  to  them  '  a  word  in  season,' 
strengthening  their  faith  and  brightening  their  hope."5 

*Dr.  Markhnm  in  South-western  Presbyterian  of  February 
21,  1884. 


488  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
preached  his  last  sermon  in  a  Presbyterian  Church. 
We  have  seen  that  he  owed  much  in  his  early  relig- 
ious life  to  the  influence  and  instrumentality  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Lyle,  a  Presbyterian  preacher;  and  that  his  last 
message  should  be  delivered  to  a  congregation  of  that 
denomination  shows  how  well  he  maintained  his  kindly 
relations  to  that  people  during  the  more  than  three- 
score years  since  he  first  tasted  "  the  good  word  of 
God,  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come." 

T\vo  days  later  he  left  New  Orleans  for  Ocean 
Springs,  to  which  place  he  had  been  invited,  and 
where  he  had  promised  to  preach  on  the  following 
Sabbath.  He  was  restless  Saturday  night,  and  spent 
the  hours  quite  uncomfortably,  and  although  Mrs. 
Kavanaugh  advised  him  to  remain  in  bed  Sunday 
morning,  and  decline  any  attempt  to  preach,  he  would 
not  listen  to  the  suggestion,  but  arose  and  prepared 
for  the  service. 

He  was  promptly  in  the  pulpit  at  11  o'clock,  and 
after  the  opening  service  announced  his  text,  "  For  our 
light  affliction  which  is  but  for  a  moment  worketh  for 
us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory." 
(2  Cor.  iv,  17.)  As  was  his  habit,  he  read  the  text  a 
second  time.  He  then  paused  a  few  moments  and 
asked  for  a  glass  of  water,  referring  at  the  same  time 
to  the  restless  night  he  had  passed,  and  to  his  present 
exhausted  condition.  After  drinking  the  water,  he 
read  his  text  the  third  time.  Unable  to  proceed  he 
took  his  seat,  at  the  same  time  requesting  a  preacher 
who  was  present  to  close  the  services.  He  was  ac- 
companied to  Colonel  Stuart's,  whose  guest  he  was,  by 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  489 

a  kind  physician,  who  immediately  prescribed  for  him 
and  attended  him  constantly  for  ten  days,  until  he  was 
able  to  travel.  He  had  accepted  an  invitation  to  spend 
a  short  time  in  Columbus,  Mississippi,  on  his  way  to 
Kentucky,  but  before  leaving  Ocean  Springs  hesitated 
as  to  whether  he  had  not  better  proceed  at  once  to 
his  home.  He,  however,  decided  on  stopping  at  Co- 
lumbus. He  left  Ocean  Springs  February  26th,  and 
reached  Columbus  the  following  morning,  in  a  feeble 
condition.  He  was  for  several  days  the  guest  of  Cap- 
tain C.  A.  Johnston,  but  on  the  urgent  solicitation  of 
Rev.  J.  H.  Scruggs  he  was  removed  to  the  parsonage, 
where  he  might  have  the  undivided  attention  of  the 
pastor  of  the  Church.  The  ablest  medical  assistance 
was  promptly  called  to  his  bedside.  He  could  not  be 
saved.  No  remedies  could  reach  the  disease  that  was 
to  take  him  from  us.  He  soon  became  unconscious, 
and  on  Wednesday  morning,  the  19th  of  March,  at  3 
o'clock,  he  breathed  his  last. 

The  following  letter  from  Rev.  J.  H.  Scruggs,  at 
whose  house  he  died,  will  be  read  with  interest : 

"  COLUMBUS,  MISSISSIPPI,  March  31,  1884. 
"  DEAR  DR.  REDFORD, — You  requested  me  when  we 
parted  in  Louisville  to  write  you,  on  my  return  home,  the 
particulars  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh's  last  illness  aud  death. 
I  now  comply  with  that  request.  When  I  was  in  Kentucky 
last  August,  attending  the  Kavanaugh  Camp-meeting,  I 
spent  on  that  ground  a  delightful  week  with  the  bishop. 
When  we  parted  I  invited  him  to  make  us  a  visit  in  Co- 
lumbus, Mississippi,  on  his  return  home  from  the  Louisiana 
Conference,  which  was  to  convene  the  following  January. 
He  partially  promised  to  do  so,  provided  his  engagements 


490  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

at  the  time  would  allow  him.  I  remembered  his  remark, 
and,  with  the  view  of  reminding  him  of  it,  I  wrote  him  a 
letter  renewing  the  invitation  during  the  session  of  the 
Louisiana  Conference,  over  which  he  presided,  at  New  Or- 
leans. In  reply  to  my  letter  he  wrote  me  of  his  intention 
to  come,  but  stated  that  he  would  remain  about  a  month  in 
New  Orleans  after  the  adjournment  of  the  conference,  make 
one  or  two  stops  on  the  way,  and  then  reach  Columbus  by 
the  last  of  February.  On  the  9th  of  February  I  received 
the  following  note  from  him,  the  last,  I  suppose,  he  ever 

wrote : 

"  '  NEW  ORLEANS,  February  9,  1884. 
"'REV.  J.  H.  SCRUGGS: 

"  '  My  Dear  Brother, — I  think  it  proper  that  I  should 
advise  you  of  our  purposed  course  of  travel  when  we  leave 
here  to  go  to  you.  I  spend  next  Sabbath  (to-morrow)  in 
this  city.  On  Tuesday  we  leave  for  Ocean  Springs.  We 
propose  spending  one  Sabbath  there,  and  from  thence  we  go 
to  Columbus  to  your  service.  You  will  please  drop  us  a 
note  to  Ocean  Springs,  and  say  at  what  time  you  would  pre- 
fer that  we  should  come  to  your  assistance ;  whether  your 
wife  will  be  at  home.  What  is  the  state  of  her  mother's 
health?  Should  it  be  necessary  we  can  spend  two  Sab- 
baths with  you,  and  then  move  for  home. 

"  '  Very  truly  yours,  H.  H.  KAVANAUGH.' 

' '  He  left  New  Orleans  for  Ocean  Springs  on  Tuesday, 
the  12th  of  February,  to  spend  a  week  with  his  old  friend, 
W.  R.  Stuart.  The  following  Sabbath,  the  17th,  he  at- 
tempted to  preach,  but  was  too  feeble  to  do  so.  He  had 
suffered  greatly  the  previous  night.  Accompanied  by  a  phy- 
sician, he  returned  to  the  home  of  his  old  friend.  The  fol- 
lowing Wednesday  or  Thursday  I  expected  him  to  reach 
Columbus.  On  the  morning  of  the  20th  of  February  I  re- 
ceived a  card  from  Sister  Kavanaugh  stating  that  the  bishop 
was  not  well,  and  had  decided  to  remain  over  another  Sab- 
bath at  Ocean  Springs.  This  he  did.  On  the  evening  of 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  491 

the  26th  of  February  he  took  leave  of  Ocean  Springs,  and 
arrived  in  Columbus  at  10  o'clock  A.  M.  the  following 
morning. 

"  In  company  with  Mrs.  C.  A.  Johnston  I  met  him  and 
his  wife  at  the  depot,  and  accompanied  them  to  the  residence 
of  Captain  C.  A.  Johnston,  where  they  were  to  be  enter- 
taiued  until  the  following  Monday.  When  we  arrived  at 
the  residence  of  the  above-named  geutlemau,  the  bishop  re- 
marked to  me  that  he  was  suffering  very  much,  and  took 
from  his  vest  pocket  two  prescriptions,  handed  them  to  me, 
and  requested  that  they  should  be  filled  as  soon  as  convenient. 
On  inquiry,  I  found  him  suffering  greatly.  I  proceeded  at 
once  to  the  drug-store,  had  the  medicine  prepared,  and  on 
my  return  administered  the  first  dose  according  to  directions. 
His  suffering  was  at  times  intense,  the  paroxysms  recurring 
after  intervals  of  thirty  minutes,  sometimes  more  severe, 
however,  than  at  others.  The  prescribed  treatment  was  kept 
up  closely  for  twenty-four  hours.  At  the  expiration  of  that 
time  he  had  received  no  relief,  and  I  advised  him  to  call  a 
physician.  It  was  decided  in  a  few  moments  that  I  should 
go  for  Dr.  W.  L.  Lipscomb,  which  I  did.  This  was  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  28th  of  February.  The  physician  was  soon 
at  his  bedside,  and  began  a  different  course  of  treatment. 
He  gave  him  internal  remedies  until  Sunday  morning;  find- 
ing these  would  not  relieve  him,  he  resorted  to  the  use  of  the 
catheter,  and  in  this  way  relieved  him  of  his  suffering. 

"  I  had  announced  the  good  bishop  for  the  pulpit  on  the 
following  Sabbath  after  his  arrival,  and  up  to  Friday  morn- 
ing he  thought  he  would  be  able  to  preach ;  but  at  that  time 
he  remarked  to  me,  in  his  characteristic  way,  '  You  had 
better  pick  your  flint  for  the  Sabbath,  my  brother.'  The 
following  day  I  inquired  of  his  physician  if  I  could  depend 
on  his  preaching  at  least  once  on  Sunday.  He  replied,  '  You 
can  not ;  his  effective  work  is  done.  He  may  live  six  months, 
or  possibly  longer  with  careful  attention,  but  I  do  not  think 
he  will  ever  be  able  to  preach  again.' 


492  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

"  His  disease  was  what  is  denominated  in  the  medical 
profession  cystitis,  and  resulted  in  blood-poison.  He  grad- 
ually grew  worse  from  day  to  day.  Under  the  direction 
of  the  physician,  we  arranged  to  leave  with  him  for  his 
home  at  Anchorage,  on  Monday,  the  10th  of  March ;  but 
as  the  time  approached  for  his  departure,  we  found  he  was 
too  feeble  to  bear  the  fatigue  of  the  trip,  and  I  decided  at 
once  to  remove  him  to  the  parsonage,  where  I  could  give 
him  my  individual  attention.  This  was  done. 

"  From  Monday  until  Thursday,  the  13th,  he  improved 
very  much  in  strength,  but  there  was  no  improvement  in 
the  disease  which  was  destined  to  put  him  in  his  grave. 
Thursday  night  he  sat  up  until  ten  o'clock,  and  related 
some  amusing  incidents  in  connection  with  his  first  circuit 
and  early  ministry.  He  then  kneeled  down  and  prayed  in 
a  weak,  tremulous  tone  one  of  the  sweetest  prayers  I  ever 
heard.  At  its  close,  I  assisted  him  from  his  knees  and  to 
his  room,  undressed  him,  and  put  him  to  bed.  Friday 
morning  he  was  worse — slept  the  greater  part  of  the  day ; 
Saturday,  still  worse.  The  physician  administered  mor- 
phine about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  when  he 
went  under  its  influence,  he  was  never  fully  conscious 
again. 

"  The  paroxysms  grew  worse  as  the  hours  passed  away, 
and  his  suffering  at  times  was  more  severe  than  any  I  had 
ever  witnessed ;  but  not  one  word  of  impatience  did  he  ut- 
ter. When  he  had  moments  of  rest  from  these  severe  at- 
tacks, which  came  like  flashes  of  lightning  before  he 
became  insensible,  he  was  serene,  and  would  frequently 
indulge  in  remarks  pointed  with  the  purest  wit  and  enliv- 
ened with  the  richest  humor. 

"  From  Saturday  noon  until  his  death,  which  occurred 
at  three  o'clock  Wednesday  morning,  the  19th  of  March, 
1884,  he  rapidly  grew  worse,  and  the  stubborn  disease 
baffled  the  skill  of  the  physicians  who  had  attended  him 
for  days  in  consultation.  When  it  was  discovered  that  his 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  493 

sickness  was  not  yielding  to  treatment,  Dr.  Vaughn  was 
called  as  counsel,  and  all  that  could  be  done  was  done  to 
relieve  him,  as  far  as  possible,  from  the  severe  torture 
through  which  he  had  passed  from  the  time  he  was  at- 
tacked at  Ocean  Springs. 

"Day  and  night  I  stood  by  his  bedside — lifted  him  up 
and  laid  him  down,  did  all  in  my  power  to  help  him  bear 
the  suffering  through  which  he  was  passing,  and  felt  grate- 
ful to  God  for  the  privilege  of  administering  to  so  great 
and  good  a  man  in  the  last  hours  of  his  mortal  life.  True 
to  God,  true  to  his  country,  and  true  to  the  best  interests 
of  humanity  for  sixty-two  years,  he  laid  down  his  life  in 
peace ;  and  I  closed  his  eyes  in  death,  '  to  sleep  the  sleep 
that  knows  no  waking,'  until  God  shall  bid  him  rise  to 
share  in  the  full  triumph  of  that  redemption  purchased  for 
the  pure  and  the  good  through  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ, 
his  Son.  May  we  meet  again  in  heaven ! 

"Yours,  fraternally,          JNO.  H.  SCRUGGS." 

Many  who  knew  Bishop  Kavanaugh  expected  his 
death  to  be  sudden.  We  had  for  many  years  thought 
he  would  die  in  the  pulpit.  It  was  in  the  pulpit, 
however,  that  God  gave  him  his  discharge  from  the 
labors  and  the  duties  of  the  ministry,  which  he  had 
received  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  He  had  finished  his 
work  before  he  left  New  Orleans;  but,  as  "Moses 
went  up  from  the  plains  of  Moab  to  the  top  of  Pis- 
gab,"  from  whence  he  might  view  the  promised  land, 
so  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  permitted,  from  the  little 
church  at  Ocean  Springs,  to  ascend  the  mount,  and 
from  its  lofty  crest  take  a  view  of  the  inheritance 
upon  which  he  was  so  soon  to  enter. 

In  the  selection  of  the  text,  which  he  thrice  read, 
but  whose  truths  he  was  not  permitted  to  discuss,  he 


494  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

doubtless  thought  of  his  own  afflictions,  so  fast  wearing 
away  his  noble  life,  and  then  of  the  glory  that 
awaited  him  when  he  would  pass  through  the  golden 
gate.  We  may  not  be  able  to  form  any  conception 
of  the  "glory"  that  met  his  vision  when  he  descried 
the  celestial  hills  on  which  the  sun  of  heaven  rested 
day  and  night.  But,  more  than  this,  the  apostle 
dipped  his  pen  in  living  light,  and  threw  upon  the 
canvas  before  his  eye  the  weight  of  glory — far  more 
exceeding  and  eternal  than  his  brilliant  imagination 
had  ever  dreamed  of.  And  as  Moses,  after  descend- 
ing from  the  mount  of  observation,  laid  him  down  to 
die  and  then  entered  upon  rest,  so  this  scarred  veteran 
of  the  cross  left  the  pulpit  with  an  honorable  discharge 
from  his  captain,  from  the  toils  of  the  battle-field,  to 
lie  down  in  death's  embrace,  and  then  to  ascend  to  the 
glittering  splendors  of  heaven,  and  bask  in  its  fadeless 
glories  forever. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  his  illness  reached  the  city 
of  Louisville,  a  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  meeting 
of  ministers  and  members  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  at  the  residence  of  Gen.  Ekin, 
as  follows : 

"Resolved,  That  we  have  read  in  the  paper  of  this  after- 
noon, with  feelings  of  profound  sorrow,  the  sad  announce- 
ment of  the  alarming  illness  of  the  Rev.  Hubbard  Hinde 
Kavanaugh,  D.  D.,  a  beloved  bishop  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  who  for  upwards  of  sixty  years 
has  gone  in  and  out  before  the  people,  proclaiming  the 
glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God,  and  whose  fame  is  co- 
extensive with  our  entire  country  ;  and  we,  the  officers  and 
members  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  495 

city  of  Louisville,  composed  of  different  religious  denomi- 
nations, assembled  together  at  this  time,  desire  very  ear- 
nestly and  tenderly  to  convey  to  the  family  and  friends  of 
Bishop  Kavanaugh,  and  to  the  Church  of  which  he  is  such 
a  distinguished  leader,  our  heartfelt,  sympathy  in  this  hour 
of  trial  and  sorrow,  and  we  earnestly  pray  that,  if  it  is  the 
will  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  he  may  be  raised  up  from 
the  gates  of  death,  and  restored  to  his  family  and  friends 
and  the  Christian  world." 

On  the  morning  of  his  death,  we  received  a  tele- 
gram from  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  announcing  the  sad  intel- 
ligence, and  her  purpose  to  return  with  his  remains  to 
Kentucky  at  once. 

On  March  21st  we  joined,  at  Bowling  Green,  Ken- 
tucky, Mrs.  Kavanaugh,  accompanied  by  Rev.  J.  H. 
Scruggs  and  Rev.  Warner  Moore,  in  charge  of  the 
bishop's  remains.  We  reached  Louisville  that  after- 
noon too  late  to  arrange  for  the  interment. 

On  the  22d,  at  11.30,  appropriate  religious  services 
were  held  in  Broadway  Methodist  Church,  which 
Church  was  selected  because  it  was  the  successor  of 
the  old  Brook  Street  Church,  which  was  the  bishop's 
last  Church  charge  in  this  city. 

The  pulpit  was  draped  in  black.  In  front  were 
arranged  many  significant  floral  offerings,  among 
which  anchors,  crosses,  crowns,  and  sheaft  of  wheat 
predominated.  With  Bishop  McTyeire  in  the  pulpit 
sat  Drs.  Dearing,  Lawson,  Messick,  Morrison,  Red- 
ford,  and  Rivers.  In  the  congregation  were  Drs. 
Weaver,  Baptist;  Humphrey,  Presbyterian;  Hobbs 
and  Walk,  Christian ;  Bingham,  Browder,  and  Emer- 
son, Methodists. 


496  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

The  service  began  by  Dr.' Rivers  reading  Mont- 
gomery's hymn : 

"  Servant  of  God,  well  done, 

Rest  from  thy  loved  employ ; 
The  battle-fought,  the  victory  won, 
Enter  thy  Master's  joy." 

After  the  singing,  Dr.  Dearing  prayed,  and  Dr. 
Bedford  read  the  Ninetieth  Psalm  :  "  Lord,  thou  hast 
been  our  dwelling-place  in  all  generations ; "  and  Dr. 
Lawson  read  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  First  Corin- 
thians, beginning  at  the  twentieth  verse:  "But  now  is 
Christ  risen  from  the  dead  and  become  the  first  fruits 
of  them  that  slept." 

Dr.  Morrison  read  Muhlenberg's  song: 

"  I  would  not  live  alway,  I  ask  not  to  stay 
Where  storm  after  storm  rises  dark  o'er  the  way." 

When  the  song  ended  Bishop  McTyeire  spoke, 
saying : 

"  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (chapter  xi,  verse  24)  reads: 
'  For  he  was  a  good  man,  and  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
of  faith;  and  much  people  was  added  unto  the  Lord.' 
Our  text  is  a  description  of  Barnabas,  the  son  of  Consolation. 
I  read  the  context,  which  explains  the  occasion :  '  Then 
tidings  of  these  things  came  unto  the  ears  of  the  Church 
which  was  iu  Jerusalem,  and  they  sent  forth  Barnabas,  that 
he  should  go  as  far  as  Autioch ;  who,  when  he  came  and 
had  seen  the  grace  of  God,  was  glad,  and  exhorted  them 
all  that  with  purpose  of  heart  they  would  cleave  unto  the 
Lord ;  for  he  was  a  good  man  and  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost.' 
The  Bible  never  indulges  in  flattery,  but  it  does  use  gen- 
erous words  of  praise.  '  He  was  a  good  man.'  That  is 
better  and  more  than  to  say  he  was  a  good  physician,  a 
good  merchant,  or  even  a  good  preacher.  Those  are  par- 
tial. '  He  was  a  good  man '  is  complete.  Good  is  more 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  497 

than  righteous  or  just.  St.  Paul  says :  '  Scarcely  for  a 
righteous  man  would  one  die,  but,  peradventure,  for  a  good 
man  one  would  even  dare  to  die.'  A  man  may  be  just  and 
not  merciful ;  may  be  true  and  not  benevolent.  He  may 
owe  no  man  any  thing,  and  yet  no  man  may  owe  him 
aught.  He  may  be  without  kindness.  One  of  the  delight- 
ful features  of  the  New  Jerusalem  will  be  that  we  shall 
enjoy  the  companionship  of  just  men  made  perfect.  Many 
just  men  of  earth  have  unhappy  homes.  Selfishness  and 
vanity  intrude.  But  when  made  perfect,  sweetened  with 
love  arid  softened  with  gentleness,  they  shall  be  fit  for  eter- 
nal company.  '  He  was  a  good  man.'  Language  can  go 
no  higher.  Barnabas  was  a  Levite,  but  benevolent.  The 
infant  Church  was  in  need ;  Barnabas  sold  his  land  and 
laid  the  proceeds  at  the  apostles'  feet  for  general  charity. 
Beloved,  you  anticipate  me  ;  in  your  hearts  and  minds  you 
are  saying  all  this  was  true  of  our  beloved  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh.  Yes,  he  was  a  good  man,  and  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  What  is  it  to  be  thus  filled?  In  the  first  place, 
this  receiving  of  the  Spirit  is  seen  in  the  man.  The  world 
sees  it.  Bitterness  and  malice  are  put  away.  How  justly 
this  is  spoken  of  Barnabas !  When  the  disciples  were  dis- 
trustful of  the  apostle,  it  was  Barnabas  who  presented  Paul 
to  them  and  stood  by  him.  He  saw  the  door  open  for  use- 
fulness greater  than  he  could  supply,  and  he  brings  Paul 
from  Tarsus  to  his  aid.  He  wanted  good  done,  not  caring 
who  did  it.  I  think  if  ever  I  knew  a  man  who  in  this 
most  thoroughly  agreed  with  Barnabas,  it  was  our  beloved 
bishop.  I  knew  him  well.  I  have  seen  him  in  the  Col- 
lege of  Bishops,  have  seen  him  presiding,  seen  him  in  many 
positions,  but  never  knew  a  man  whose  heart  was  freer 
from  malice.  His  heart  and  life  were  full  of  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  gentleness,  meekness,  etc.  And,  like  Barnabas, 
he  was  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  That  last  promise  of  the 
Savior  to  send  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  was  fulfilled  in 
him.  O,  how  he  was  thu.s  maided  to  bless  the  Church! 

41' 


498  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

We  call  it  the  unction  of  the  Spirit  that  opens  the  hearts 
of  hearers.  How  often  in  city  churches,  in  country  churches, 
in  camp-meeting  sheds,  in  woods  and  on  plains  have  listen- 
ing multitudes  heard  him  preach  the  Gospel  with  the  Holy 
Spirit  sent  down  from  heaven!  Beautifully,  constantly, 
and  thoroughly  was  Christian  joy  illustrated  in  him  whom 
we  are  to  bury  to-day.  He  had  a  religion  that  made  him 
happy.  He  loved  God,  his  Church,  and  his  fellow-man. 
'  Full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  faith.'  His  spiritual  life  be- 
gan in  faith,  and  grew  in  grace — faith  in  Christ,  the  Son, 
and  in  God,  the  Ruler.  He  laid  his  hand  on  the  head  of 
the  divine  victim;  every  moment  he  said,  '  I  need  thy  blood, 
O,  Lord!'  He  was  thoroughly  Arminian.  As  he  once 
told  me,  he  had  worked  it  out  and  found  himself  a  Meth- 
odist in  the  Arminian  creed.  I  never  knew  a  man  so  free 
from  bigotry.  He  loved  all  good  men,  and  I  believe  all 
good  men  loved  him.  He  said,  '  Both  by  nature  and  grace 
I  am  formed  opposed  to  bigotry.  My  father  was  a  Prot- 
estant Episcopal,  my  mother  was  a  Methodist.  I  was  awak- 
ened to  a  sense  of  sin  under  a  Baptist  and  converted  under 
a  Presbyterian,  and  hence  I  am  connected  with  the  entire 
household  of  faith.'  The  last  sermon  he  preached  was  in  a 
Presbyterian  Church. 

"Now,  having  looked  at  these  points,  what  is  the  re- 
sult? 'And  much  people  was  added  unto  the  Lord.'  That 
is  always  the  result.  I  now  call  your  attention  to  him  not 
only  as  a  good  man.  but  as  a  bishop  building  up  the  Church. 
Let  me  say  in  the  beginning,  be  not  ambitious  of  number. 
God  forbid  that  you  should  hurry  people  into  the  Church 
or  keep  those  in  who  do  not  belong !  In  such  is  folly  and 
sin.  Death  is  thinning  our  ranks.  Unless  multitudes  be 
added,  the  Church  will  fall  behind.  You  must  reach  and 
convert  the  masses. 

"What  of  our  brother's  work?  When  H.  H.  Kavan- 
augh  was  admitted,  in  1823,  the  Kentucky  Conference 
numbered  twenty-one  thousand  five  hundred.  This  was 


BISHOP  KAVANAUG1L  499 

all  of  Kentucky,  and  portions  of  Ohio  and  Tennessee. 
Perhaps  there  were  fourteen  thousand  in  Kentucky  proper. 
When  he  died,  Kentucky  had  one  hundred  and  three  thou- 
sand. When  he  entered  the  ministry,  there  were  ninety- 
two  ministers;  at  his  death  there  were  four  hundred  and 
ninety-eight,  and  five  hundred  local  preachers.  Truly  much 
people  was  added.  You  know  he  was  chiefly  instrumental 
m  bringing  about  these  results.  In  his  ministry  of  sixty- 
one  years  he  preached  in  every  city,  town,  and  village  in 
the  commonwealth  of  Kentucky.  There  is  hardly  a  prom- 
inent country  Church  in  which  he  has  not  preached.  We 
estimate  that  he  preached  between  fifteen  thousand  and 
seventeen  thousand  sermons.  You  know  they  were  sermons, 
not  sermonettes.  He  began  with  his  first  appointment  at 
Big  Sandy  ['Little  Sandy' — a  voice].  Yes,  Little  Sandy, 
and  preached  nearly  every  day  and  twice  on  Sunday.  His 
district  was  large.  His  field  was  always  large.  After  he 
became  bishop  his  territory  was  from  Maryland  to  Califor- 
nia, from  Oregon  to  Florida.  He  went  everywhere  preach- 
ing the  Gospel.  In  his  thirty  years'  life  as  a  bishop  he 
gave  fifteen  thousand  preaching  appointments  to  ministers. 
He  ordained  between  eight  hundred  and  nine  hundred  dea- 
cons, and  six  hundred  and  seven  hundred  elders.  These 
are  parts  of  his  services. 

"  He  was  born  in  Clark  County,  January  4,  1802,  and 
died  at  Columbus,  Mississippi,  March  19,  1884,  just  as  he 
was  entering  his  eighty-third  year.  A  brother  said,  '  What 
a  pity  he  could  not  have  died  at  home ! '  It  was  better  for 
him  to  have  died  abroad ;  died  in  active  service.  He  was 
licensed  in  1822.  When  Peter  Akers  and  Edward  Steven- 
son were  ordained  deacons,  and  Wm.  Gunn  was  ordained 
elder,  H.  H.  Kavanaugh  entered  the  ministry;  Barnabas 
McHenry,  Benjamin  Lakin,  and  Leroy  Cole  were  super- 
annuated, thus  beautifully  illustrating  the  words  of  the 
opening  prayer  of  to-day's  service — God  removes  his  work- 
men, but  carries  on  his  work. 


500 

"Our  brother  was  twice  married.  Each  time  he  took 
a  helpmate.  They  comforted  and  consoled  him  in  all  his 
labors  and  long  journeys. 

"  Brethren,  Kentucky  has  had  many  great  statesmen, 
men  of  wonderful  reputation,  great  scientists,  great  citizens. 
I  hesitate  not  to  say,  we  bury  to-day  the  most  eminent  and 
useful  citizen  that  God  ever  blessed  this  commonwealth 
with.  Think  of  this  holy,  devotional  life,  running  through 
sixty-one  years — a  light  in  darkness,  sweetening  bitter- 
ness, leading  men  to  God!  Kentucky  had  this  light  for 
sixty  years.  No  man  can  put  a  finger  on  a  single  spot 
of  his  record  and  say  it  is  faulty.  You  will  feel  your  loss 
more  to-morrow  than  to-day,  and  more  next  month,  and  in 
the  time  to  come  your  full  loss  will  be  known.  It  seems 
to  me  our  brother  could  have  fitly  spoken  the  words  of 
Samuel's  farewell  speech,  and,  when  he  had  spoken  those 
words,  had  you  answered  you  would  have  to  answer  as  the 
children  of  Israel  did. 

' '  His  last  appearance  in  the  pulpit  was  when  he 
stopped  at  Ocean  Springs,  February  17th,  where  he  found 
an  appointment  for  him  to  preach.  He  entered  the  pulpit, 
announced  his  text,  '  For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but 
for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory.'  The  congregation  waited ;  he 
pronounced  the  text  a  second  time,  and  paused.  A  third 
time  he  spoke  the  text,  sat  down,  and  calling  a  local  preacher, 
asked  him  to  preach  the  sermon  for  him.  He  died  almost 
in  the  act  of  preaching — and  he  has  now  that  exceeding 
weight  of  glory.  He  continued  his  journey  from  New  Or- 
leans to  Columbus,  Miss.  There  he  died.  Let  me  say  for 
your  comfort  that  he  could  not  have  fallen  into  kinder  hands. 
I  know  those  people.  I  have  been  their  pastor.  If  I  do 
not  die  at  home,  I  would  ask  to  die  in  such  a  place. 

"  We  desired  at  the  University  to  bury  our  brother  by 
the  side  of  McKendree  and  Soule,  but  he  had  long  ago  said 
that  Kentucky  was  his  place  for  his  body  to  rest;  and  it 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  501 

is  fitting.  You  want  to  hear  liis  dying  testimony?  The 
great  Whitefield  once  said :  '  I  have  borne  testimony  so 
often  in  life  that  I  don't  think  the  Master  will  call  on  me 
to  speak  in  death.'  He  died  saying  nothing.  That  was 
the  case  with  our  brother,  Bishop  Kavauaugh. 

"  '  Servant  of  God,  well  done, 

Rest  from  thy  loved  employ ; 
The  battle  fought,  the  victory  won, 
Enter  thy  Master's  joy.'  " 

Dr.  Messick  read  the  hymn — 

"  Coind  let  us  join  our  friends  above, 
That  have  obtained  the  prize." 

After  the  singing,  Dr.  Messick  prayed,  and  Bishop 
McTyeire  announced : 

"  It  was  not  possible  to  have  the  remains  in  the 
church ;  they  await  us  at  the  vault  in  Cave  Hill. 
We  will  take  carriages,  proceed  thither,  and  deposit 
the  body  in  the  grave.  We  will  go  from  here  with- 
out the  benediction,  as  the  service  will  conclude  at 
the  grave." 

When  the  vault  at  Cave  Hill  was  reached,  the 
hearse  with  the  casket  was  waiting.  After  three 
hacks  had  passed,  the  hearse  entered  the  procession, 
and  all  hastened  to  the  grave,  which  is  located  near 
the  new  western  portion  of  the  cemetery,  a  few  feet 
from  Capt.  D.  G.  Parr's  tall  monument.  Mrs.  Kav- 
anatigh  sat  in  a  carriage  near  the  grave.  Rev.  Dr. 
Kavanaugh  and  relatives  stood  near  by,  while  Bishop 
McTyeire  read  the  simple  Methodist  burial  service. 
Moss  was  gently  laid  on  top  of  the  coffin  case  to 
deaden  the  sound  of  the  falling  clods,  and  the  grave 
was  quickly  filled.  Loving  hands  covered  it  with 
costly  floral  offerings. 


502  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Bishop  McTyeire  said :  "  We  have  now  done  all 
that  Christian  hands  can  do.  This  body  is  sown  in 
corruption ;  it  shall  be  raised  in  glory.  We  hasten  to 
that  day."  And  the  sad  assemblage  moved  away. 

Hon.  James  S.  Lithgow,  who  forty  years  ago  was 
received  into  the  old  Brook  Street  Church  by  Bishop 
Kavanaugh,  was  the  careful  manager  of  the  funeral 
services. 

Bishop  McTyeire,  with  much  force,  refers  to  the  fact 
that  he  left  no  words  of  cheer  in  his  dying  moments. 
Far  more  than  this,  he  left  a  long  life  devoted  to 
Christ.  Upon  a  thousand  hills  and  a  thousand 
plains,  in  frescoed  and  in  log  churches,  in  palaces  of 
wealth  and  in  the  cabins  of  the  poor,  he  had  borne 
testimony  to  the  truth  and  saving  power  of  the  Gos- 
pel, and  now  he  had  only  to  enter  into  the  rest  that 
awaited  him.  He  had  thrown  aside  his  armor  and 
surrendered  the  sword  he  had  never  dishonored,  and 
then  passed  away  to  the  bright  and  beautiful  world 
he  had  so  often  described ! 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  503 


xvi. 

TRIBUTES  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH. 

AT  the  memorial  service  held  in  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, on  Sunday,  March  30th,  Bishop  George 
F.    Pierce    delivered    the    following    tribute   to    his 
memory : 

"  My  acquaintance  with  our  departed  colleague 
stretches  over  forty  years  or  more,  and  yet  our  inter- 
course has  been  partial  and  at  long  intervals.  We 
have  mingled  at  our  annual  meetings,  and  occasion- 
ally in  conference  sessions,  but  rarely  meeting  in  pri- 
vate life.  My  materials  for  sketch  and  comment  are 
comparatively  scanty.  But  I  am  not  here  to  deliver 
a  eulogy,  nor  can  you  expect  a  very  delicate  or  thor- 
ough tracery  of  character.  General  statements,  au- 
thenticated by  a  uniform  observation  and  the  common 
judgment  of  the  Church,  must  suffice  for  this  occa- 
sion, leaving  the  fuller  delineation  to  his  future  biog- 
rapher. Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  born  in  Clark  County, 
Kentucky,  January  14,  1802.  His  early  advantages 
of  education  and  culture  were  limited.  While  quite 
a  boy  he  was  put  into  a  printing-office  and  learned 
the  art  of  type-setting.  In  this  business  he  remained 
till  near  the  time  of  his  admission  on  trial  as  a  trav- 
eling preacher  in  the  Kentucky  Conference.  At  six- 
teen years  of  age  he  was  converted  to  God.  Drifting 
about  as  an  «p>han  boy  among  different  families  of 


504  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

his  kindred,  lie  was  much  perplexed  by  varied  theo- 
logical teachings.  In  seeking  religion  he  was  much 
embarrassed  by  conflicting  ideas ;  but  this  was  turned 
to  good  account,  in  that  the  mental  and  moral  troubles 
through  which  he  passed  made  him  apt  to  teach  oth- 
ers similarly  perplexed — expounding  to  them  more 
perfectly  the  way  of  God  as  he  learned  it  out  of  his 
own  experience.  His  heart  taught  him  to  interpret 
Scripture,  and  doctrine  was  illumined  by  the  light 
struck  out  by  temptation  and  trial.  The  terror  of  his 
awakening,  the  bitterness  of  sin,  the  anguish  of,  re- 
pentance, and  all  the  struggles  of  a  mind  under  deep 
conviction  characterized  the  process  by  which  he  was 
brought  to  Christ.  His  conversion  was  clear.  It 
brought  him  spiritual  comfort,  composure  of  con- 
science, satisfaction  of  heart.  He  was  happy,  rejoiced 
in  God.  Religion  was  in  him  a  well  of  water  spring- 
ing up  to  everlasting  life.  Fresh  and  full,  a  gushing 
fountain,  it  never  failed  nor  knew  when  drought 
came.  He  rose  rapidly  as  a  preacher.  The  Church 
recognized  his  gifts,  and  his  profiting  was  apparent  to 
all.  He  has  filled  every  grade  of  work  from  a  mount- 
ain missionary  (that  means  hard  work,  privation,  and 
poor  pay)  to  the  episcopacy.  Until  he  became  one 
of  the  general  superintendents  his  ministry  was  con- 
fined almost  exclusively  to  his  native  State.  There 
the  chief  appointments  were  the  beneficiaries  of  his 
labors.  He  was  distinguished  alike  as  preacher  and 
pastor,  counselor,  friend,  and  guide  to  the  people. 

"Bishop  Kavanaugh  loved  the  itinerancy  —  the 
little  discomforts  connected  with  it  were  too  insigni- 
ficant, in  his  view,  to  mar  the  real  an^superior  en- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  505 

joyments  to  be  found  in  it.  He  believed  in  it  as  the 
Scriptural  and  most  efficient  method  for  propagating 
the  Gospel.  He  realized  in  his  personal  ministry  the 
benefits  of  occasional  change.  He  enjoyed  the  sys- 
tem because  it  brought  him  into  contact,  acquaintance, 
and  fellowship  with  so  many  good  people  scattered 
over  our  vast  territory.  His  genial  nature  basked 
with  delight  in  the  sympathy  and  confidence  and 
brotherly  love  of  the  Church  and  her  friends.  He 
was  no  imperious  prelate,  lording  it  over  God's  herit- 
age, repelling  with  magisterial  air  the  poor  and  the 
humble.  Simple  as  a  child,  affectionate  as  a  woman, 
he  was  accessible  to  all,  sympathized  with  the  weak 
and  the  sad  and  the  tempted,  and  was  tender  even 
with  the  erring.  I  do  not  think  I  ever  knew  a  more 
guileless,  transparent,  artless  man.  He  was  generous, 
broad-minded,  large-hearted,  self-forgetful.  He  was 
a  saintly  man.  He  entered  the  kingdom  of  God 
through  the  strait  and  narrow  gate.  He  dug  deep, 
and  built  his  house  upon  a  rock,  and  it  survived  the 
stormy  winds  of  time  and  all  the  surging  billows  of 
temptation  and  sorrow.  God's  people  everywhere  in 
the  Scriptures  are  called  saints.  He  was  not  perfectly 
holy,  perhaps,  but  he  was  really  so.  Living  beyond 
four-score  years,  he  has  left  an  unblemished  name. 
He  illustrated  the  religion  of  Christ  in  its  self-denial, 
humility,  and  zeal.  Labor  was  rest,  and  pain  was 
sweet  to  him,  if  thereby  Christ  might  be  honored. 
He  carried  the  Church  in  his  heart — gave  to  her  the 
first-fruits  of  his  life,  the  strength  and  glory  of  his 
manhood ;  and  the  last  days  of  a  green  old  age  were 
laid  lovingly  and  without  stint  upon  her  altar.  His 

43 


506  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

Christian  life  is  one  of  the  gems  of  purest  ray  serene 
belonging  to  American  Methodism.  He  was  a  wit- 
ness for  Jesus,  whose  credibility  commanded  the  con- 
fidence of  all  who  knew  him.  Talk  about  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity,  external  and  internal:  I  do 
not  disparage  them;  but  here  they  are  incarnated  in 
this  good  man — focalized — a  radiant  demonstration. 
A  long,  spotless  Christian  life  is  an  unanswerable 
argument  for  the  truth  and  divinity  of  our  holy  re- 
ligion. I  thank  God  Methodism  has  been  piling 
them  up  for  the  last  hundred  years,  like  pyramids. 
The  tower  of  Babel  on  the  plains  of  Shinar,  whose 
top  was  to  reach  to  heaven,  was  a  wild,  daring,  im- 
practicable adventure;  but  our  pyramid  will  pierce 
the  skies,  and  outlast  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  Its 
basis  broad,  and  built  of  living  stones,  it  rises  higher 
and  higher,  and  will  be  a  monument  of  the  Gospel 
when  the  earth  is  ashes  and  the  heavens  fled  and 
gone. 

"It  never  was  my  privilege  to  hear  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh  preach  often — indeed,  only  a  few  times,  and 
never  under  favorable  circumstances.  I  must  judge 
him  largely  from  the  report  of  others.  He  had  a  pas- 
sion for  preaching ;  he  was  at  home  in  the  pulpit.  It 
was  the  inspiration  of  his  mind,  the  joy  of  his  heart. 
It  was  not  ambition,  the  love  of  applause,  or  the  hope 
of  gain  that  moved  him;  it  was  the  love  of  Christ, 
of  souls,  of  the  Church.  This  was  the  motive  power, 
the  animating  principle.  His  mind  was  saturated 
with  divine  truth.  His  subjects  absorbed  him.  Sal- 
vation by  faith  in  Christ,  and  the  doctrines  which  re- 
volved around  this  proposition  as  a  nucleus — these 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  507 

were  his  favorite  themes.  Very  few,  if  any,  preached 
more  Gospel  than  Bishop  Kavanaugh. 

"Almost  any  one  of  his  discourses,  if  heard  and 
understood  by  a  heathen,  would  have  expounded  to 
him  the  way  of  salvation.  His  own  countrymen,  who 
heard  him  often,  he  left  without  excuse.  He  held  fast 
to  what  Paul  calls  'the  form  of  sound  words/  No 
novelties,  no  speculations  nor  metaphysical  subtleties 
diluted  his  sermons.  He  preached  a  pure  Gospel. 
No  empirical  decoctions  gathered  from  the  fields  of 
philosophy  and  science  were  ever  offered  by  him  to  a 
sin-sick  soul,  or  furnished  as  a  tonic  for  an  invalid 
Church.  His  materia  medica  was  limited  to  the  leaves 
of  the  tree  of  life  which  God  gave  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations. 

"  His  intellect  in  repose  was  like  his  body,  heavy — 
slow  to  move.  Hence  his  long  sermons.  It  took 
him  awhile  to  get  the  wheels  in  revolution.  The 
motion  was  not  automatic,  but  for  a  time  mechanical. 
The  fire  had  to  be  stirred,  the  fuel  put  in,  the  power 
generated;  but  when  the  machinery  was  well  lubri- 
cated, the  vessel  under  headway,  the  steam  on,  the 
sails  up,  the  momentum  was  tremendous.  As  we  have 
gone  round  to  the  conferences  where  he  had  been,  we 
have  heard  wonderful  things  of  his  prowess  in  the 
pulpit.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  dull  man.  The  power 
was  in  him,  but.  latent  like  fire  on  flint.  The  flash 
seldom  failed  to  follow  the. stroke.  The  normal  state 
of  his  mind  was  one  of  repose;  but  he  needed  the  rev- 
elations of  faith,  the  enthusiasm  of  love,  and  the  in- 
spiration of  hope,  the  transport  of  Christian  joy,  to 
lift  him  up  and  out  of  himself;  then  old  things  passed 


508  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

away  and  all  things  became  new.  He  was  a  new  man  ; 
his  face  glowed  —  his  eye  flashed  —  his  mind  grew 
imaginative,  poetic,  and  he  swept  through  the  world 
of  thought  on  imperial  wing.  He  will  take  high  rank 
as  a  preacher,  if  not  in  the  biographies  of  Methodism, 
certainly  in  the  memory  of  living  people.  The  truth 
is,  he  was  a  grand  old  man.  But,  above  all,  he  was  a 
good  man,  and,  like  Barnabas,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  faith.  He  was  soundly  converted.  He  never,  I 
think,  professed  sanctifi cation,  not  because  he  was  not 
holy — for  he  was  a  deeply  consecrated  man — but  be- 
cause he  did  not  think  a  verbal  profession  the  better 
way.  His  religion  was  a  principle  and  a  passion — a 
habit  of  life  and  an  ornament  of  character.  He  en- 
joyed religion — made  daily  use  of  it  as  a  guide  and 
support.  His  experience  was  remarkably  uniform. 
He  was  capable  of  strong  emotion,  of  intense  excite- 
ment, but  his  constitution  and  temperament  were  so 
adjusted  that  he  did  not  swing  between  depression 
and  exultation.  After  the  most  ecstatic  enjoyment, 
the  reaction  never  fell  below  the  level  of  conscious 
peace  and  the  tranquilizing  assurance  of  divine  ap- 
proval. With  him  the  work  of  righteousness  was 
peace,  and  the  effect  of  righteousness,  quietness  and 
assurance  forever. 

"  I  met  Bishop  Kavanaugh  at  the  Virginia  Con- 
ference about  the  middle  of  last  No^&eniber.  He  was 
then  hearty  and  vigorous.  He  presided  without 
fatigue,  and  preached  with  his  wonted  power.  Con- 
ference over,  he  started  southward,  preaching  as  he 
went,  working  his  way  to  New  Orleans.  There  he 
held  his  last  conference.  Before  he  turned  his 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  509 

steps  homeward,  he  lingered  for  weeks,  preaching  in 
the  various  churches  to  the  delight  and  profit  of  the 
people.  After  he  left  the  city,  on  his  way  to  Ken- 
tucky, he  stopped  at  Columbus,  Miss.  There  he  was 
stricken  with  his  fatal  sickness.  The  symptoms  were 
not  alarming.  Nothing  serious  was  apprehended. 
A  few  nights  before  his  death  he  sat  up,  talked  cheer- 
fully with  the  family,  and  finally,  complaining  of 
fatigue,  he  was  asked  to  have  prayer  before  retiring. 
He  did  so.  This  was  his  last  service  on  earth. 
Growing  worse  during  the  night,  he  lapsed  into  un- 
consciousness. He  died,  and  made  no  sign.  But  no 
anxious  doubt  shadows  his  departure.  No  fear  of  his 
future  disturbs  our  resignation.  He  died  in  peace; 
he  rests  in  hope.  Our  brother  shall  rise  again. 

"Since  our  separate  organization,  in  1845,  a  period 
of  thirty-nine  years,  ten  of  our  bishops  have  passed 
away — Bascom,  Soule,  Capers,  Andrew,  Early,  Marvin, 
"VVightman,  Doggett,  Paine,  Kavanaugh.  A  noble 
catalogue  of  honored,  useful  men,  worthy  to  be  canon- 
ized among  the  great  and  good  of  earth.  They  lived 
long  and  well.  Two,  I  believe,  had  reached  their 
sixtieth  year;  four  had  passed  three-score  and  ten; 
four,  by  reason  of  strength,  had  overgone  their  four- 
score years.  Venerable  men  !  the  fragrance  of  their 
memory  still  lingers  with  us.  Their  names  are  as 
ointment  poured  forth.  The  Church  honored  them, 
and  they  honored  the  Church.  They  have  left  us  a 
priceless  heritage  of  character  and  example,  of  in- 
struction and  service,  of  holy  living,  official  fidelity, 
and  death-bed  testimony.  Our  tears  become  us,  and 
our  grief  is  just;  but,  thank  God,  we  have  nothing  to 


510  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

bewail.  These  beloved  brethren  filled  their  provi- 
dential places  wisely  and  well — served  their  genera- 
tion by  the  will  of  God ;  they  died  in  the  Lord,  and 
now  they  rest  from  their  labors,  and  their  works  do 
follow  them.  . 

"And    now,   my   beloved   colleagues,   who   next? 
We  are  all  going. 

'  Time,  like  an  ever-rolling  stream, 
Bears  all  its  sons  away.' 

Labor,  exposure,  the  care  of  all  the  Churches — these 
will  wear  and  exhaust  us.  Sickness,  too,  will  come, 
perhaps  far  from  home  and  wife  and  children.  Age, 
death's  nearest  neighbor,  is  creeping  upon  us.  Al- 
ready the  days  of  our  youth  3nd  strength  are  gone. 
The  almond-tree  flourishes.  Erelong  the  strong  men 
will  bow  themselves,  and  those  that  look  out  of  the 
windows  will  be  darkened,  and  the  last  enemy  will 
take  us  captive.  The  grave  will  be  our  house,  and 
the  worm  our  companion.  But  over  all  this  decay 
and  solitude  and  imprisonment  Christianity  bends  her 
bow  of  hope,  radiant  with  all  the  hues  of  heaven. 
We  know  in  whom  we  have  trusted.  We  believe  in 
the  Gospel  we  preach.  We  have  committed  our- 
selves, our  families,  the  Church  we  love,  into  the 
hands  of  our  blessed  Redeemer.  Whatever  betide 
us,  we  shall  find  all  safe  in  that  day.  Our  parents 
have  gone  before  us;  our  children  are  dropping  into 
the  tomb;  we  are  to  the  margin  come;  the  dews  of 
the  evening  are  falling  upon  us.  When  the  night 
comes,  may  we,  like  our  brethren,  lie  down  in  hope 
of  a  glorious  resurrection!  In  'that  day'  we  shall 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  511 

all  meet  again,  and,  I  trust,  be  forever  with  the  Lord 
whom  we  have  believed  and  preached  and  served." 

Memorial  services  were  held  in  many  of  the  prin- 
cipal cities  and  towns  throughout  the  connection, 
expressive  of  the  felt  loss  of  the  Church. 

At  the  preachers'  meeting,  held  in  the  city  of 
Louisville  March  31st,  the  following  tribute  was  paid 
to  his  memory: 

"After  a  long,  eventful,  and  honorable  life,  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  sleeps  well.  No  citizen  has  served  the 
State  more  faithfully,  no  preacher  has  served  the 
Church  more  successfully ;  and  he  dies  honored  by 
Church  and  State,  if  not  the  first  citizen  of  the  com- 
monwealth— for  half  a  century,  assuredly  its  first 
preacher.  And  be  it 

"  Resolved,  That,  in  our  judgment,  Methodism  has 
not  produced  a  more  typical  and  representative 
preacher  or  bishop  since  the  days  of  Asbury — Asbury 
worthily  opening  the  centenary  of  American  Method- 
ism that  Bishop  Kavanaugh  closes  so  well. 

"  2.  That  we  Kentucky  preachers  mourn  his  loss, 
not  only  as  bishop  and  fellow-preacher,  but  also,  and 
especially,  as  brother  and  friend. 

"3.  That  we  tender  our  sympathy  to  his  widow, 
and  to  the  bereaved  and  widowed  Church. 

"  H.  C.  SETTLE,  Chairman. 
"  B.  M.  MESSICK,  Secretary. 

"  LOUISVILLE,  March  31,  1884." 

Similar  meetings  were  held  throughout  the  con- 
nection, while  district  conferences  gave  vent  to  their 
sorrow  in  most  beautiful  and  touching  words.  The 


512  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

entire  Church  felt  the  bereavement,  and  mourned 
his  death. 

On  no  previous  occasion  had  the  Methodist  press 
expressed  greater  sorrow  over  the  death  of  any  of 
their  chief  pastors  than  on  the  present. 

The  Christian  Advocate,  published  at  Nashville, 
said  of  him : 

"  His  sun  went  down  full-orbed  and  cloudless. 
From  the  pulpit  where  he  made  his  last  essay  to 
preach  the  Gospel  he  went  to  his  bed,  and  lay  down 
to  die.  The  mighty  brain  and  great,  loving  heart 
only  ceased  their  vigorous  functions  a  little  while  be- 
fore he  was  called  up  to  clearer  light  and  larger  life 
and  fuller  love. 

"  The  Church  sorrows  and  rejoices  for  him — sor- 
rows that  his  face  shall  be  seen  no  more  among  us, 
rejoices  that  his  life  was,  by  the  grace  of  God,  so 
pure,  so  truly  grand,  so  fruitful,  so  completely 
rounded.  His  individuality  was  so  marked,  his  per- 
sonality so  powerful,  that  his  departure  leaves  a  vac- 
uum that  will  not  be  filled,  an  aching  void  in  the 
heart  of  the  Church. 

"As  a  Christian,  he  was  of  the  highest  type. 
Godward,  he  was  trustful,  obedient,  reverent,  ador- 
ing. Manward,  he  was  faithful,  gentle,  loving,  wise, 
and  winning. 

"As  a  preacher,  he  will  rank  among  the  greatest 
of  his  contemporaries.  His  greatest  efforts  were 
marvels  of  inspired  eloquence.  The  musical  voice, 
with  its  great  compass  and  variety  of  tone,  the  grace- 
ful gesture,  the  cumulative  power  of  thought,  the 
flash  of  playful  wit,  the  daring  flights  of  imagination, 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  513 

the  majesty  of  his  impassioned  periods  when  in  full 
thunder,  the  glowing  face,  the  dilating  form,  and  the 
magnetism  that  drew  and  held  the  eager,  tearful,  and 
often  shouting  multitudes,  who  can  forget?  He  was 
a  great  preacher,  according  to  every  right  standard. 
That  he  was  unequal  in  the  pulpit,  was  the  natural 
result  of  his  temperament.  He  was  not  an  elocu- 
tionist, but  an  orator:  the  mere  elocutionist  maintains 
a  respectable  dead-level  at  all  times;  the  orator  has 
flood  and  ebb  tides,  on  which  he  rises  and  falls.  He 
usually  preached  on  great  subjects — the  fundamental 
facts  and  principles  of  the  Gospel.  His  thought  was 
massive,  his  logic  steel-linked;  but  with  these  there 
was  always  the  glow  of  the  great  heart  that  yearned 
over  human  woe  and  peril,  and  the  persuasiveness  of 
the  preacher  who  had  been  taught  of  God  and  made 
wise  to  win  souls.  And  he  Avon  many — how  many 
will  not  be  known  until  'the  day'  shall  reveal  all 
things.  His  crown  will  glitter  with  many  stars.  If 
all,  living  and  dead,  who  have  been  touched  benefi- 
cially by  his  ministry  could  be  heard  in  testimony  of 
the  fact,  how  vividly  would  we  realize  the  success 
of  his  lalx>r  of  sixty-one  years,  and  how  poor  would 
seem  the  highest  triumphs  of  human  achievement  on 
the  arena  of  mere  worldly  ambition ! 

"As  a  bishop,  he  was  blameless — not  infallible, 
but  blameless.  Not  beyond  the  imputation  of  mis- 
judgment,  but  beyond  the  suspicion  of  wrong'motive. 
This  is  strong  language;  but  we  use  it  deliberately, 
knowing  the  man,  and  having  his  record  before  our 
mind.  He  made  no  claim  to  expertncss  in  the  tech- 
nicalities of  ecclesiastical  law;  but  his  strong  sense 


514  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

of  right,  his  unfailing  patience  and  good  temper,  and 
his  exquisite  tact,  made  him  a  safe  and  successful  ad- 
ministrator. He  cared  little  for  the  intricacies  and 
niceties  of  parliamentary  law;  but  his  good  sense 
and  magnetic  power  were  adequate  to  the  discharge 
of  the  weighty  functions  of  a  presiding  officer.  The 
conferences  in  which  he  presided  wished  him  to  come 
again,  and  the  love  and  esteem  of  the  brethren  in- 
creased with  every  successive  visit.  Loved  and  ven- 
erated as  he  was  by  the  whole  Church,  that  love 
and  veneration  were  strongest  where  he  was  best 
known.  Kentucky — his  own  loved  Kentucky — is 
the  chief  mourner  at  his  grave,  but  we  all  sorrow 
together." 

The  gifted  editor  of  the  New  Orleans  Christian 
Advocate  said : 

"  But  a  few  weeks  ago  Bishop  Kavanaugh  left  this 
city,  after  a  delightful  sojourn  with  us  of  a  month,  in 
robust  health  that  promised  many  more  years  of 
vigorous  service.  His  strength  of  voice  and  limb 
was  indeed  remarkable,  when  we  consider  his  length 
of  days.  But  in  the  ripe,  rich  fullness  of  an  hon- 
ored, glorious  life  he  has  fallen  on  sleep. 

"  Thus  passes  to  his  reward  one  of  the  purest  and 
noblest  of  God's  heroes.  Guileless,  transparent,  gen- 
erous, gentle,  large-hearted,  and  saintly,  he  illustrated 
the  graces  of  our  holy  religion,  going  in  and  out 
among  his  brethren  for  over  fourscore  years  without 
a  blur  on  his  name  or  a  stain  on  his  shield,  and  at 
last  has  gone  up  to  the  rich  reward  of  a  dauntless, 
tireless  apostolic  chieftain.  No  knightlier  soul  ever 
wielded  with  braver  arm 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  515 

'A  two-edged  sword, 
Of  heavenly  temper  keen.' 

"  He  seemed  to  court  and  covet  hard  places — de- 
serted and  untried  fields — where  only  phenomenal 
faith  and  courage  would  dare  to  go.  Every  nook 
and  corner  of  a  pioneer  Methodist  preacher's  experi- 
ence he  had  explored,  from  the  poorest  mission  to 
the  high  office  of  a  bishop.  And  into  each  work  he 
carried  the  same  spirit  of  self-forgetful  ness.  It  was 
not  with  the  mere  words  of  feigned  modesty,  but 
genuine  humility,  that  he  shrank  from  the  responsi- 
bilities of  the  episcopacy.  He  had  a  passion  for 
preaching,  not  for  its  applause  or  stipend,  but  as  a 
means  of  saving  souls.  And  the  pulpit  was  his 
throne  of  power.  There  he  reigned  and  reveled,  at 
times,  with  scarcely  a  peer  in  the  entire  Church. 
Even  within  the  past  few  weeks  he  has  preached 
twice  in  a  Sabbath,  exhibiting  the  greater  power  in 
the  second  service.  Thus  he  has  ceased  at  once  to 
work  and  live. 

We  copy  the  following  from  the  Christian  Advocate, 
published  at  Raleigh,  N.  C. : 

"  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  a  grand  preacher.  The 
pulpit  was  his  strongest  forte.  He  seemed  to  delight 
in  preaching,  and  he  did  it  grandly.  One  of  the  most 
powerful  sermons  we  ever  heard  was  preached  by 
Bishop  Kavanaugh.  He  seemed  to  get  almost  up  into 
heaven  himself,  and  carried  his  audience  along  with 
him.  When  he  reached  the  climax,  he  clapped  his 
hands  and  shouted '  Hallelujah  !'  and  his  audience  would 
have  shouted  too,  but  for  the  fact  that  he  seemed  to 
have  them  perfectly  entranced  and  intensely  silent,  as 


516  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

they  sat  lost  in  admiration  of  his  wonderful  oratory. 
The  Wilmington  Star  says: 

"  '  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  of  Kentucky,  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  preachers  in  the  whole  land.  He  was  a 
man  of  very  marked  powers.  Said  the  gifted  Philemon 
Archer  to  us  once:  "Did  you  ever  hear  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh preach  ?"  Upon  replying  in  the  negative,  he  added : 
"  Well,  you  ought  to  hear  him.  The  first  half-hour  you 
will  wish  he  had  never  begun,  and  the  last  half-hour  you 
will  wish  that  he  would  never  end."  This  explains  his 
manner.  Like  a  great  ship  he  moved  slowly  at  first,  hut 
when  he  got  out  into  the  deep  waters  and  had  thrown 
every  sail  to  the  breeze,  he  moved  then  with  celerity  and 
stateliness  and  splendor.  He  was  an  orator.  He  was  a 
good  man,  very  devoted  and  full  of  fruit.  His  life  was  a 
blessing  to  thousands,  and  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty- 
two  he  passed  away.  He  was  able  almost  to  the  last  to 
speak  with  marked  effect  for  an  hour  and  a  half  or  two 
hours.  There  are  few  such  men  left  behind  him  in  the 
world.'" 

From  the  Central  Methodist,  published  at  Catletts- 
burg,  Ky.,  we  take  the  following: 

"  There  was  not,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  a  man 
in  the  American  pulpit  more  universally  known  or 
loved  than  Bishop  Kavanaugh.  Sixty-one  years  an 
efficient  Methodist  preacher,  and  thirty  years  of  that 
time  a  bishop,  traveling  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pa- 
cific, and  traversing  almost  every  thoroughfare  in  the 
whole  South,  made  his  name  a  household  word,  pro- 
nounced with  reverence  by  all  the  people. 

"  But  above  all  this  was  his  consistent  life,  warm, 
genial  disposition,  and  unsurpassed  eloquence  in  the 
pulpit.  During  his  whole  life,  there  was  not  the 
breath  of  slander  breathed  against  him.  His  very 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  517 

presence  disarmed  the  opposition  of  enemies  of  the 
Church,  aiid  awed  them  into  silence.  While  not 
light  in  his  conversation  or  given  to  jesting,  yet  his 
very  presence  brought  sunshine  and  happiness.  A 
man  of  purer  speech  we  have  never  known.  He  was 
emphatically  a  man  of  clean  lips.  His  goodness 
and  greatness,  however,  were  most  conspicuous  in 
the  pulpit,  of  which  he  was  a  shining  ornament.  No 
American  preacher,  we  suppose,  excelled  him  in  the 
number  of  sermons  preached  during  his  life.  'As  he 
went,'  he  { preached.'  And  the  people  heard  him 
gladly.  He  was  so  clear  in  his  statements,  so  careful 
in  his  arguments,  and  so  eloquent  in  his  appeals,  that 
for  hours  the  people  would  sit  in  breathless  stillness 
while  he  discoursed  to  them. 

"  On  one  memorable  occasion  we  heard  him  preach 
two  hours  and  twenty  minutes,  and  no  one  seemed  to 
think  he  had  preached  a  long  sermon.  When  his 
eloquence  caught  fire,  flashing  from  planet  to  planet 
and  from  earth  to  heaven,  his  audiences  were  charmed 
by  his  power  and  thrilled  by  his  wonderful  flow  of 
language,  as  well  as  the  beautiful  imagery  painted  by 
his  matchless  speech." 

The  Wesley  an  Christian  Advocate  said  of  him: 

"Amiable,  kind,  generous,  good,  he  loved  with 
great  heartiness,  gave  his  money  liberally  to  good 
causes,  forgave  injuries  with  promptness  and  fullness, 
and  kept  his  spirit  pure  and  sweet. 

"  He  was  a  bishop,  not  merely  in  the  ecclesiastical 
sense  for  the  exercise  of  a  few  peculiar  functions,  but 
in  the  evangelical  sense;  he  cared  for  souls.  He  al- 
ways stood  in  his  lot  for  episcopal  work,  whether  in 
the  old  conferences  or  in  the  far  West ;  but  we  fancy 


518  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

he  preferred  the  pulpit  and  the  altar  crowded  with 
mourners  to  the  platform  of  the  General  Conference,  or 
the  president's  chair  and  the  ordination  services  of  our 
annual  conferences.  He  was  a  preacher ;  he  never 
tired  of  the  one  work.  To  preach  the  Word,  to  as- 
sure the  Church  of  its  connection  with  Christ  and  its 
interest  in  His  resurrection,  was  his  '  loved  employ.' " 

The  Episcopal  Methodist,  published  in  Baltimore, 
says : 

"At  the  time  he  was  stricken  with  his  fatal  illness, 
he  was  slowly  returning  to  his  home  in  Louisville 
from  New  Orleans,  where  he  had  presided  over  a  con- 
ference in  January.  He  gave  but  little  evidence  of 
his  great  age.  He  was  stalwart  in  frame,  with  a  pa- 
triarchal bearing,  full  habit,  small,  piercing  eyes,  and 
pleasant  countenance.  He  was  not  only  greatly  and 
justly  admired  and  esteemed,  but  loved-  with  warm 
personal  affection  by  all  who  knew  him." 

Dr.  Lafferty,  of  the  Richmond  Christian  Advocate, 
in  his  own  emphatic  style,  says  : 

"At  our  recent  conference,  he  presided ;  but  it  was 
evident  to  many  that  he  had  well-nigh  '  finished  his 
course/  and  that  his  demise  might  be  looked  for  at 
almost  any  time. 

"Looking  back  at  his  long  and  useful  career,  re- 
calling his  fidelity,  bravery,  simplicity  of  heart  and 
aim,  his  eloquence,  and  his  transparent  integrity  and 
lofty  Christian  virtues,  we  may  say  with  more  than 
usual  fervor — 

'Servant  of  God,  well  done, 

Eest  from  thy  loved  employ ; 
The  battle  fought,  the  victory  won, 
Enter  thy  Master's  joy !' 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  519 

"As  a  preacher  he  excelled.  There  was  a  natural, 
easy,  and  powerful  action  about  his  mind  in  the  pul- 
pit ;  and  a  strong,  pleasant  voice  and  natural  gestures 
carried  the  hearer  along  charmed,  till  a  grand  rush  of 
feeling  carried  all  before  it.  He  was  no  sermonette 
man ;  he  needed  a  good  hour  and  a  half  or  two  hours. 
Accordingly,  he  rejoiced  in  camp-meeting  services,  in 
the  open  air,  with  'the  great  congregation'  before 
him,  and  no  trammels  of  any  sort ;  there  he  was  in 
his  element  and  glory.  Many  will  be  the  souls  to 
rise  up  in  eternity  and  call  him  blessed. 

"  Full  of  honors  well  earned  ;  full  of  years,  having 
outlived  nearly  all  his  contemporaries;  full  of  peace 
and  a  holy  trust  in  Jesus,  mellowed  by  the  experience 
of  a  long  and  varied  life,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
centenary  year  of  American  Methodism,  beholding  the 
glory  of  its  progress  with  eyes  not  yet  dim,  nor  a 
heart  too  old  to  feel  the  thrill  of  pleasure  in  such  a 
review,  he  has  laid  down  his  body  and  charge,  and 
joined  the  company  of  the  redeemed,  and  gone  to 
salute  with  a  holy  rapture  the  sainted  Paine,  and 
others  lately  his  colleagues  in  our  episcopacy." 

The  Southern  Christian  Advocate  says: 

"Our  beloved  and  now  sainted  brother  was  an  Is- 
raelite indeed,  in  whom  there  was  no  guile.  He  rests — 
literally  rents  —  after  a  well-filled  day  of  hard  work 
and  consecrated  toil." 

The  Colorado  Methodist,  published  at  Pueblo,  says 
of  him  : 

"  In  the  life  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh  we  have  an  il- 
lustration of  the  very  best  elements  of  a  Methodist 
preacher.  Simplicity,  singleness  of  aim,  purity  of  pur- 


520  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

pose  were  conspicuous  in  him.  '  He  offered  himself 
willingly  unto  the  Lord/  and  allowed  no  selfish  mo- 
tive to  divert  him  from  his  Master's  work.  He  sought 
no  promotion  to  place  or  power,  and  when  his  breth- 
ren put  him  forward,  he  was  surprised  that  they  put 
such  estimate  upon  him.  He  never  suspected  that  he 
was  talented  till  he  was  told  of  it,  and  then  his  feeling 
was  not  elation,  but  surprise  at  the  common  stand- 
ard by  which  he  was  measured.  We  have  heard  him 
so  express  himself. 

"  He  was  a  devout  Christian.  He  was  a  genial, 
sweet-spirited  man.  He  was  an  earnest  and  eloquent 
preacher.  His  life,  running  parallel  with  a  long 
stretch  of  our  Church  history,  shaped  that  history  no 
little,  and,  when  it  is  drawn  out  in  detail  by  his  biog- 
grapher,  will  be  found  full  of  fruit  and  full  of  inspi- 
ration to  those  who  come  after  him.  May  his  influ- 
ence reproduce  his  character  in  many  a  student  of 
his  life." 

The  Pacific  Methodist  says : 

"  His  long  life  was  filled  with  sunshine.  Contact 
with  him  was  a  benediction  which  thousands  have  en- 
joyed. His  joyous  spirit,  his  tender  heart,  his  devout 
and  holy  life,  and  his  matchless  eloquence  made  him 
a  model  preacher  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  Christ. 
On  the  Pacific  Coast  he  was  known  in  almost  every 
hamlet." 

His  praise,  however,  is  not  confined  to  the  press, 
but  individual  tributes  are  bestowed  from  every  por- 
tion of  the  country. 

Bishop  Keener  recently  said :  "  Bishop  Kavan- 
augh  possessed  the  rare  gift  of  the  rhythm  of  prose, 
and  a  wonderful  use  of  words.  He  was  one  of  a  num- 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  521 

ber  of  very  great  orators  of  Kentucky,  such  as  Jona- 
than Stamper,  Marcus  Lindsey,  Win.  Guun,  and  Henry 
Bascom.  Not  long  since,  while  preaching  in  Arkan- 
sas, the  audience  were  so  carried  away  by  his  elo- 
quence, that  they  rose  and  stood  on  the  tops  of  the 
pews.  He  was  a  great  theologian,  and  discussed  his 
subjects  with  great  perspicuity  before  permitting  his 
theme  to  lift  him  into  the  realm  of  eloquence." 

Rev.  C.  G.  Andrews,  D.  D.,  of  the  Mississippi  Con- 
ference, writes : 

"  Bishop  Kavanaugh  has  presided  over  the  Mis- 
sissippi Conference  five  times  during  the  last  twenty- 
six  years  :  first  at  Vicksburg,  in  1868 ;  then  at  Merid- 
ian, in  1871;  at  Brandon,  in  1872;  again  at  Merid- 
ian, in  1873;  and  last  at  Natchez,  in  1883,  just  a  few 
months  before  his  death. 

"  I  might  say  that  the  impression  which  he  made 
at  the  first  conference  was  confirmed  and  strength- 
ened by  each  succeeding  one.  He  was  of  so  trans- 
parent a  character  that  all  could  readily  see  through 
it.  An  utter  absence  of  duplicity  prevented  him  from 
concealing  any  thing,  even  if  there  had  been  any  thing 
to  conceal.  It  would  have  had  to  come  out,  no  mat- 
ter whom  or  what  it  damaged,  as  he  did  not  know 
how  to  take  counsel  of  policy  or  cunning.  He  was 
so  unambitious,  that  I  really  believe  he  was  just  as 
self-possessed  on  one  occasion  as  another,  no  matter 
how  occasions  might  differ  in  importance  or  magni- 
tude. If  there  was  any  difference,  he  seemed  to  be 
more  unconcerned  upon  occasions  where  he  had  reason 
to  believe  that  great  things  were  expected  of  him 

than  ordinarily,  when  the  salvation  of  souls  was  more 

44 


522  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

directly  dependent  upon  the  proper  presentation  of 
the  truth. 

"Bishop  Kavauungh  was  as  guileless  and  as  simple 
as  a  little  child.  I  have  seen  him  in  the  social  circle, 
when  he  would  bring  himself  down  to  the  level  of 
little  children,  entering  into  their  enjoyments  with  a 
freshness  and  forgetfulness  of  self  that  could  not  be 
aifected,  but  could  come  from  nature  only.  There 
was  no  stiffness  or  formality  about  him.  The  very 
same  freedom  of  manner  that  characterized  him  in  the 
company  of  little  children,  seemed  to  belong  to  him 
when  associated  with  the  learned  and  the  elders. 

"He  had  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  anecdote. 
There  was  an  appropriateness  and  a  pertinency  in  his 
anecdotes  that  made  you  think  he  originated  some  of 
them  for  the  occasion.  He  had  that  rare  quality  of 
enjoying  a  joke  at  his  own  expense.  This  kind  he 
seemed  to  narrate  with  peculiar  relish.  He  did  not 
consider  his  features  very  handsome  nor  his  person 
very  graceful,  and  any  humorous  reflection  he  hap- 
pened to  hear  made  upon  either,  he  treasured  up  and 
would  often  relate  to  friends  with  irresistible  humor. 
An  illustration  of  this  occurred  at  the  late  session  of 
the  Mississippi  Conference,  during  one  of  the  sessions 
of  his  cabinet.  Some  reference  had  been  made  to  his 
figure.  l  That  reminds  me,'  said  he,  f  of  a  remark  the 
gifted  and  erratic  Tom  Marshall,  of  Kentucky,  made 
about  me.  Tom  and  I  grew  up  together,  and  were 
quite  intimate.  I  used  to  admire  his  genius  and  la- 
ment his  wanderings.  He  got  down  so  low  at  one 
time  that  he  had  no  home,  got  his  meals  just  where 
he  could,  and  would  fall  down  and  sleep  wherever 


BISHOP  KAVANAVGH.  523 

sleep  overtook  him,  even  though  it  was  in  a  stable  or 
a  hay-loft.  I  was  walking  down  street  early  one 
morning,  and  felt  my  sorrow  stirred  at  seeing  Tom 
coming  out  of  one  of  his  sleeping-places,  with,  the  hay 
still  sticking  in  his  hair  and  to  his  clothes.  He  called 
out  to  me  while  I  was  yet-at  some  distance  from  him : 
'  Kavanaugh,  you  and  I  resemble  our  blessed  Savior, 
but  in  different  particulars:  I,  in  that  I  have  not 
where  to  lay  my  head ;  and  you,  in  that  you  have  no 
form  or  comeliness.'  It  was  impossible  to  resist  the 
inimitable  gusto  with  which  he  related  this,  and  the 
presiding  elders  forgot  all  about  the  knotty  cases  they 
were  trying  to  dispose  of,  and  laughed  in  uncontroll- 
able merriment. 

"  His  features  in  repose  were  rather  homely,  and 
his  body  was  very  large  and  unwieldy ;  yet,  when  in 
preaching  he  warmed  to  the  subject,  and  would  begin 
to  indulge  in  quick  succession  his  enrapturing  flights 
of  eloquence,  his  face  would  be  lighted  up  with  a  cap- 
tivating radiance,  and  every  movement  of  his  body 
would  seem  to  be  so  responsive  to  the  glowing  senti- 
ments as  to  make  the  impression  that  it  was  the  very 
vehicle,  of  all  others,  in  which  to  convey  impassioned 
eloquence.  A  physician,  who  entertained  the  bishop 
during  one  of  our  district  conferences,  and  who  was 
quite  captivated  by  him,  expressed  his  admiration  for 
his  guest  in  the  following  extravagant  and  yet  char- 
acteristic words:  'Why/  said  he,  'he  reminds  me  of 
a  great  big  hogshead  with  its  hoops  ready  to  burst  off 
with  genial  humor,  with  goodness  of  heart,  and  with 
glorious  eloquence/ 

"There  was  never  any  friction    in   the   bishop's 


524  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

presidency  over  our  conference ;  no  one  stood  in  awe 
of  the  rap  of  his  gavel  nor  dreaded  a  rigid  ruling. 
He  allowed  the  broadest  latitude,  and  appeared  as  a 
father  ready  to  encourage  all  his  sons  rather  than  as 
an  officer  whose  stern  regard  for  law  and  rigid  enact- 
ment of  order  knew  no  sympathy  nor  relaxation.  His 
decisions  of  law  were  made  up  not  so  much  from  the 
strict  letter  nor  from  close  analytical  construction  as 
from  the  practical  bearing  of  the  question  and  its  re- 
lation to  life  and  morals. 

"  Every  one  who  writes  or  speaks,  or  even  thinks 
of  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  will  indorse  the  opinion  that 
his  chief  characteristic,  his  crowning  glory,  was  his 
unsurpassed — not  to  say  peculiar — talent  for  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  of  Christ.  There  is  one  adjective  that 
always  seemed  to  suggest  itself  whenever  I  would 
undertake  to  characterize  his  preaching — an  adjective, 
by  the  way,  which  I  associate  with  the  preaching  of 
no  one  else — that  is,  'grand/  He  was  emphatically  a 
grand  preacher  when  at  himself.  He  was  noted  for  a 
peculiarly  clear  and  concise  statement  of  doctrine; 
but  many  others  excelled  in  this  as  well  as  he.  He 
had  a  rare  use  and  richness  of  illustration ;  but  in  this 
he  had  equals,  though  not  many.  But  there  was  a 
sphere  in  which  he  was  unrivaled,  a  domain  of  pul- 
pit power  which  they  who  were  familiar  with  his 
preaching  awarded  to  him  alone.  It  was  when  the 
divine  afflatus  furnished  him  with  a  fullness  and  rich- 
ness of  expression  that  drew  forth  at  will  the  most  fit- 
ting words  from  the  treasuries  of  language  ;  when  with 
thoughts  coruscating  with  true  poetic  fire ;  when  with 
life-like  images — some  glowing  with  ecstatic  beauty, 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  525 

others  reeking  with  the  odors  of  perdition — as,  look- 
ing down  into  the  clear  depths  of  revelation,  he 
evoked  them  from  the  regions  of  glory  or  from  the 
realms  of  despair ;  and,  above  all,  when,  with  the  air 
of  authority  belonging  to  one  who  has  received  his 
commission  from  Heavan,  he  himself  appeared  as 
transported  with  the  everlasting  Gospel,  and  by  his 
magic  power  lifted  up  his  willing  hearers  to  the  same 
enrapturing  heights.  Nothing  but  inspiration  could 
have  given  such  power.  No  matter  how  richly  an 
orator  may  be  endowed  by  nature,  no  matter  how 
diligently  he  may  prepare  himself,  the  most  faultless 
productions  of  the  most  accomplished  artists  would  be 
tame  in  comparison.  The  true  Gospel  of  the  transfig- 
uration can  be  preached  only  when  there  is  the  bright 
cloud  overshadowing,  and  the  voice  out  of  the  cloud 
attesting  the  presence  and  inspiration  of  Heaven. 
Here  was  the  secret  of  the  wonderful  pulpit  power  of 
Bishop  Kavanangh.  He  was  fond  of  preaching  from 
the  text,  '  But  there  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Almighty  giveth  them  understand- 
ing,' and  his  own  preaching  was  at  once  a  demonstra- 
tion of  its  truth  and  a  grand  illustration  of  its  power. 
"Our  last  association  with  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was 
on  Christmas  eve,  1883.  We  had  invited  a  few  con- 
genial spirits  to  meet  him  and  Mrs.  Kavanaugh  in 
the  'hired  house'  which  we  were  using  as  a  presiding 
elder's  parsonage.  (The  very  next  night  the  dwelling 
was  consumed,  with  our  entire  stock  of  personal  ef- 
fects, including  the  ministerial  labors  of  twenty-six 
years,  together  with  the  manuscript  records  of  the 
Mississippi  Conference  since  1813.)  The  bishop  was 


526  LIFE  AND    TIMES  OF 

in  his  happiest  mood,  playfully  abandoning  himself  to 
the  enjoyment  of  the  hour,  showing  a  deep  interest 
in  all  that  was  going  on,  and  delighting  the  company 
by  his  sparkling  conversation  and  entertaining  anec- 
dote. One  of  the  guests  who  had  sat  under  his  min- 
istry, but  had  never  seen  him  in  the  social  circle,  was 
so  charmed  by  the  bishop's  entertaining  and  genial 
manners  as  to  say  that  the  experiences  of  such  an 
evening  would  rarely  occur  again  even  in  a  lifetime. 
The  music,  both  vocal  and  instrumental,  seemed  to 
give  him  unfeigned  joy.  Particularly  was  he  inter- 
ested in  the  song  of  '  The  Bridge/  by  Longfellow. 
Were  its  weird  melody  and  sad  sentiments  prophetic 
to  him  of  the  calamity  about  to  befall  us,  and  of  the 
translation  soon  to  come  to  him? 

'And  forever  and  forever, 

As  long  as  the  river  flows, 
As  long  as  the  heart  has  passions, 

As  long  as  life  has  woes, 
The  moon  and  its  broken  reflection 

And  its  shadows  shall  appear 
As  the  symbol  of  love  in  heaven 

And  its  wavering  image  here.' 

"He  conducted  worship  before  leaving  us  with  a 
fervid  simplicity,  with  impressive  earnestness,  and 
with  tearful  pathos.  The  memory  of  Bishop  Kav- 
anaugh  to  me  and  mine  will  be  an  experience  of  ben- 
efit, a  joy  forever." 

Rev.  T.  N.  Ralston,  D.  D.,  of  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference, furnishes  us  the  following  memorial  sketch  of 

"BISHOP  HUBBARD  H.  KAVANAUGH. 

"I  have  been  requested,  from  a  source  which  I  can 
not  disregard,  to  write  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  our  re- 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  527 

cently  deceased  Bishop  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh.  Never 
did  I  attempt  to  write  on  a  theme  on  which  I  felt  more 
deeply  my  inadequacy  to  the  task  of  rendering  what  my 
heart  would  dictate,  as  but  the  meed  which  truth  and  jus- 
tice would  require.  It  strikes  me  as  presumptuous  for  any 
one  feeling  himself  so  unequal  to  the  task  to  essay  to  pre- 
sent a  proper  portraiture  of  the  moral  worth  and  intellect- 
ual powers  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh.  It  is  clear  to  my  mind 
that  what  I  may  write  will  be  more  from  the  heart  than 
from  any  other  source.  I  loved  him  much.  I  have  known 
him  long  and  intimately.  I  had  the  happiness  to  form  his 
acquaintance  at  the  first  conference  I  ever  attended,  and 
at  which  I  was  admitted  on  trial.  This  conference  con- 
vened at  Versailles,  Kentucky,  October  10,  1827;  Bishops 
Soule  and  Roberts  in  attendance.  As  I  well  remember, 
Bishop  Roberts  preached  an  excellent  Gospel  sermon  from 
Isaiah  ix,  6.  Brother  Kavaiiaugh  had  then  been  in  con- 
ference but  four  years.  Thus  he  was  four  years  my  senior, 
both  in  conference  and  in  natural  life;  he  having  been 
born  in  Clark  County  in  1802,  and  I  in  Bourbon  in 
1806.  We  have  both  dwelt  in  Kentucky  nearly  all  the 
time  since.  We  have  always  been  associated  on  terms  of 
the  most  confidential  intimacy.  We  both  lived  for  several 
years  in  Lexington  at  the  same  time ;  he  as  presiding 
elder  on  the  district,  I  in  charge  of  the  Female  Collegiate 
High-school.  This  necessarily  threw  us  much  together. 
Neither  of  us  kept  any  secret  from  the  other.  What  one 
knew,  both  knew;  and,  so  far  as  I  cau  remember,  what 
one  approved,  both  approved.  This  applies,  with  little 
exception,  to  our  entire  connection  with  the  Church  and 
conference.  But  how  shall  I  proceed  in  my  attempt  of 
an  analysis  of  his  character?  It  would  seem  superfluous 
to  aim  to  describe  his  personal  appearance ;  for  who  in  all 
this  region,  from  California  to  Florida,  has  not  looked 
upon  his  form?  A  stranger,  scrutinizing  him  closely,  would 
l>e  apt  to  pronounce  him  a  quiet,  honest,  candid,  and 


528  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

agreeable  gentleman ;  in  temperament  kind,  and  inclined 
to  be  jovial  and  urbane,  rather  than  austere;  one  to  be 
relied  on  as  a  friend,  to  stick  closer  to  you  than  a  brother. 
His  countenance  indicated  strongly  developed  moral  pow- 
ers. A  purer  heart  I  never  knew  than  that  which  glowed 
in  his  warm  bosom.  He  was  incapable,  in  word  or  deed, 
of  any  thing  inconsistent  with  the  moral  principles  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.  A  heart  of  kinder  impulses  never 
throbbed  in  human  bosom.  His  social  qualities  were  ex- 
cellent. Whether  with  young  or  old,  with  male  or  female, 
he  was  genial,  pleasant,  respectful,  and  agreeable  in  the 
highest  degree.  Even  when  I  first  knew  him,  though  he 
was  quite  a  young  man,  having  been  but  four  years  in  the 
conference,  yet  he  had  gained  a  reputation  for  pulpit  elo- 
quence which  no  one  among  us,  except  Bascom,  had  ever 
reached.  Hence  his  society  was  much  courted  and  enjoyed 
by  a  numerous  circle  of  admiriug  friends.  His  course  was 
onward  and  upward  all  the  time,  occupying  successively 
the  best  stations  with  approval  and  success.  He  was  ordi- 
narily, in  appearance,  not  remarkably  noteworthy;  yet  his 
cast  indicated  that  he  possessed  immense  power,  and  in- 
domitable force  and  energy,  when  by  occasion  aroused. 
He  was  not  composed  of  a  bundle  of  negations  compacted 
together,  but  of  independent,  distinct,  and  positive  convic- 
tions, and  deeply  considered  and  firmly  settled  principles. 

"As  a  preacher,  he  combined  several  of  the  most  es- 
sential qualities  of  an  excellent  and  useful  Gospel  minister 
in  so  high  a  degree  that  it  is  not  easy  to  decide  in  which 
he  most  excelled.  His  mind  worked  deliberately  and  cau- 
tiously. Such  composition,  generally  requiring  some  stim- 
ulus to  stir  its  peculiar  energies,  must  sometimes  not  ex- 
hibit its  usual  force.  But  though  I  have  so  often  heard 
him  preach,  I  never  knew  him  to  fail  but  once,  when, 
after  speaking  perhaps  about  ten  minutes,  he  stopped, 
stood  a  minute  or  so,  and  with  child-like  simplicity  re- 
marked, '  Brethren,  it  seems  my  mind  will  not  work  to- 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH. 

night,'  and  calling  some  one  to  the  pulpit,  he  sat  down. 
He  laughed  heartily  about  it  afterwards,  and  seemed  to 
mind  it  less  than  a  less  famous  man  would  have  done. 
Bishop  Kavanaugh  never  jumped  rapidly  to  hap-hazard 
conclusions.  I  think  he  had  adopted  as  life-maxims  these 
two:  Deliberate  and  decide  with  calmness  and  caution; 
then  execute  with  firmness  and  perseverance.  He  was  not 
readily  excited  to  enter  in  any  contest ;  but  when  brought 
to  the  point  of  onset,  he  was  to  be  conquered  with  the  ut- 
most difficulty.  To  surrender  he  knew  not  how.  When 
important  principle  was  involved  he  was  immovable.  If 
Martin  Luther  and  John  Kuox  possessed  the  spirit  of  mar- 
tyrdom, rather  than  to  deviate  from  truth  and  righteousness, 
even  so  did  Hubbard  H.  Kavauaugh.  In  his  firmly  glued 
lips,  had  the  occasion  demanded,  might  have  been  read 
these  words,  '  You  may  kill  me,  but  you  can  not  move  me 
from  my  conscientious  convictions.'  Pulpit  eloquence  was 
far  from  being  his  sole  excellence.  He  was  a  deeply  stud- 
ied and  a  Scripturally  and  Methodistically  orthodox  theo- 
logian of  the  Wesley,  Fletcher,  and  Watson  stamp.  I 
have  evidence  to  know  that  no  one  witnessed  with  more 
regret  than  he  the  tendency  in  some  comparatively  young 
paeachers  to  desire  to  '  amend  our  rules '  and  the  doctrines 
of  our  Church,  so  clearly  set  forth  and  so  ably  defended 
and  established  in  the  hearts  of  almost  the  entire  Method- 
ist family. 

"As  to  his  method  in  the  pulpit,  he  generally  occu- 
pied about  twenty  minutes,  in  the  first  part  of  his  dis- 
course, in  calmly  reasoning,  as  a  philosophical  divine,  on 
the  great  principles  underlying  his  subject.  Here  the  more 
thoughtful  portion  of  his  hearers  were  edified  and  entertained ; 
but  the  general  mass  were  resting  till  the  time  came  for 
him  to  soar  aloft  on  the  wing  of  his  sparkling  imagination. 
As  an  impulsive  descriptive  orator,  he  could  scarcely  be 
excelled.  He  was  an  eloquent  and  sublime  describer  of 
the  important  topics  of  Gospel  s:ilv:ition  :  of  sin,  and  its 

45 


530  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

dire  issues;  of  the  atonement,  and  its  wondrous  display 
of  the  love  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  of  the 
measures  of  grace  and  love  portrayed  by  the  Triune  God- 
head to  save  the  ruined  world.  Who  that  has  ever  heard 
him,  at  camp-meetings  and  large  and  important  occasions, 
when  rising  to  a  lofty  stage  of  rapture,  and  climbing  from 
one  degree  to  another,  still  higher  and  higher,  till  he 
seemed  to  lift  our  gaze  to  the  opening  arcana  of  the  lofti- 
est home  of  angels  and  of  all  the  shining  ranks  of  the 
ransomed  hosts;  till  even  the  sublime  effulgence  of  the 
Triune  Godhead,  in  all  its  ineffable  glory,  seemed  bursting 
upon  human  vision,  while  all  hearts  in  the  vast  assembly 
were  almost  ready  to  shout  aloud,  '  Is  this  heaven  brought 
down  to  earth,  or  is  it  earth  lifted  up  to  heaven?' — who 
has  ever  been  present  on  such  an  occasion  without  beiug 
filled  with  the  most  thrilling  emotion  ?  Indeed,  when  once 
he  would  cut  loose  from  his  logical  argument,  I  have  heard 
him  when  climbing  in  climacteric  heights  of  eloquence, 
until  the  sublimity  of  his  language  came  near  the  verge 
of  being  unlawful  for  human  utterance. 

"In  speaking  of  his  character  as  a  preacher,  we  must 
accord  to  him  the  meed  of  possessing  a  happy  combination 
of  the  best  traits  of  a  useful  and  successful  Gospel  minis- 
ter to  a  degree  excelled  by  none  of  his  contemporary  asso- 
ciates. To  a  few  of  these  we  here  make  a  brief  reference. 

"First  rises  to  view  that  peerless  orator,  once  desig- 
nated by  Henry  Clay  as  the  '  lion  of  the  West,'  Henry  B. 
Bascom.  As  an  eloquent  and  far-seeing  statesman  and 
patriotic  orator,  I  have  ever  considered  Henry  Clay  '  head 
and  shoulders  above'  all  who  have  ever  risen  in  America. 
Even  so  I  place  Henry  B.  Bascom  at  the  head  of  the  list 
of  the  pulpit  orators  of  whom  America  has  ever  had  reason 
to  be  proud.  There  was  also  Marcus  Lindsey,  a  real,  stal- 
wart Hercules.  In  hard,  logical  reasoning  on  theological 
questions,  and  sound,  convincing  arguments,  he  could  bring 
down  his  arm  and  hand  on  the  breast-board  with  the  most 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  531 

conducing,  the  most  stunning  force,  against  the  principles 
of  au.  opponent,  I  ever  heard  iu  ray  life.  When  I  once 
heard  him  preach  against  Calvinism,  I  thought  if  all  the 
Calviuists  in  the  world  had  listened  to  his  arguments,  for 
very  shame  they  never  could  have  had  the  hardihood, 
thereafter,  to  acknowledge  their  creed.  There  was  George 
C.  Light.  When  once,  in  Danville,  I  heard  him  deliver 
a  sermon  against  Unitarianism,  I  thought  that  ism  was  the 
last  pill  of  heterodoxy  I  could  ever  be  induced  to  swallow. 
There  was  the  plain,  but  eccentric,  Josiah  Whitaker.  I 
heard  him  preach  a  sermon  about  four  hours  long, 
more  than  fifty  years  ago,  against  the  new  but  full-blown 
system  of  Campbellism — logical,  witty,  and  Scriptural — 
giving  book,  chapter,  and  verse,  which,  in  real  strength 
and  convincing  power,  I  think  I  have  never  since  heard 
excelled.  All  that  he  lacked,  it  seemed  to  me,  in  excell- 
ing even  Campbell,  was  culture. 

"  In  revival  and  evangelical  force,  there  were  Absalom 
Hunt,  Henry  McDauiel,  William  Holman,  Richard  D. 
Neale,  Milton  Jamison,  John  Fisk,  Edwin  Roberts,  and 
some  others.  If  there  be  any  evangelists  of  the  present 
day  excelling  these,  I  know  them  not. 

"  These  are  only  a  small  portion  of  the  class  of  men 
with  whom  our  recently  glorified  and  much-loved  bishop  co- 
operated in  the  earlier  years  of  his  ministry.  But  in  moral 
worth,  in  abundance  of  labor,  in  purity  of  life,  and  influence 
of  his  example,  by  whom  among  them  was  he  excelled  ? 

"  Shall  we  ever  see  his  like  again?  In  his  death  I  feel 
that  the  best  ministerial  friend  God  ever  gave  me  is  gone  up 
higher.  I  gazed  upon  him  in  his  youth,  when  the  bursting 
flowers  of  fame  and  usefulness  were  freshly  circling  his 
brow  with  fragrance  and  charm.  I  have  viewed  him  with 
pleasure  and  profit  in  his  ever-increasing  influence  and  use- 
fulness, till,  like  a  ripe  shock  of  grain,  he  has  been  lifted 
to  the  heavenly  garner.  May  those  whom  he  "baa  left  be- 
hind follow  him,  as  he  followed  Christ!" 


532  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

FROM  REV.  WM.  M.  GRUBBS,  OF  INDIANA.  • 

"  WALDRON,  SHELBY  Co.,  INC.,  April  10,  1884. 
"  REV.  A.  H.  REDFORD,  D.  D. : 

"Dear  Brother, —  As  upon  you  devolves  the  love- 
labor  of  writing  the  life  of  our  old  friend,  may  I  not 
submit  a  few  recollections,  not  only  from  my  personal  as- 
sociations with  him,  but  because  of  the  long  and  unbroken 
friendship  that  existed  between  Bishop  Kavanaugh  and 
my  father-in-law,  the  late  Rev.  Jonathan  Stamper,  and 
their  families?  They  were  natives  of  the  same  county  in 
Kentucky,  and  by  the  intermarriages  of  those  well-known 
Methodist  families  of  Central  Kentucky,  the  Raileys,  the 
Tuckers,  and  the  Rowlands,  there  was  something,  also,  of 
kinship.  Their  early  training  for  the  life-work  in  which 
they  became  distinguished  was  singularly  alike,  while  their 
views  of  Church  policy  and  their  action,  not  only  during  the 
years  of  peace,  but  even  when  one  went  from  Kentucky 
and  the  other  from  Illinois  as  delegates  to  the  General 
Conference  of  1844,  were  in  substantial  harmony.  I  have 
been  searching  for  a  long  letter  the  bishop  wrote  Mrs. 
Grubbs  upon  the  death  of  her  mother,  reciting  these  long 
friendships,  and  when  found  it  will  be  at  your  service. 

"Upon  invitation  to  assist  in  the  dedication  of  a  beau- 
tiful country  church  we  had  erected  in  Clarke  County, 
ImK,  in  February,  1877,  he  spent  a  pleasant  night  with  us 
at  the  cozy  parsonage ;  and  until  past  midnight  those  long 
years  of  intimate  association  were  reviewed  by  him,  with 
that  pleasing  by-play  of  wit  and  anecdote  that  made  him 
the  delight  of  the  social  circle.  The  sum  of  it  all  was 
that  there  had  not  been  a  break  in  their  friendship  of 
fifty  years. 

"The  first  time  that  I  remember  to  have  seen  Bishop 
Kavanaugh  was  in  the  Summer  of  1829,  when  he  was  sta- 
tioned in  Russellville,  Ky.  The  house  of  your  old  friend, 
and  my  uncle,  the  late  Rev.  Thos.  G.  Gooch,  was  the  church 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  533 

home  of  the  little  Methodist  society  in  our  neighborhood. 
While,  as  a  mere  school-boy,  I  recollect  nothing  of  the  ser- 
mon, I  recall  the  stubby,  well-dressed,  and  graceful  young 
preacher,  as  standing  in  the  door  of  my  uncle's  house,  on 
a  week-day,  he  preached  to  as  large  a  congregation  as  the 
dismissed  school  and  our  neighborhood  could  then  furnish. 
I  wished  he  would  come  again,  as  it  would  not  only  give  us 
a  longer  recess  from  school,  but  would  give  me  a  chance 
at  the  extra  fare  provided  at  my  uncle's  table  on  preach- 
ing-day. It  will  not  be  strange  to  you,  when  I  state  that  I 
was  three  years  in  the  conference  before  I  made  his  ac- 
quaintance; for  you  and  I  were  of  those  callow  novitiates, 
that,  as  a  rule,  kept  clear  of  the  more  than  half-dozen 
pulpit  magnates  for  which  our  conference  was  then  dis- 
tinguished. If  Drs.  Tomlinson  and  Bascom  were  excep- 
tions, in  any  case,  a  couple  of  yellowed  essays,  now  before 
me,  bearing  their  friendly  criticisms  and  autographs,  show 
that  I  had  to  form  their  acquaintance  as  committeemeu. 
My  acquaintance  proper  began  with  the  bishop  in  the 
fall  of  1837,  when  we  were  thrown  together  at  Bardstown, 
to  which  station  he  was  returned  for  the  second  year,  with 
J.  Stamper  on  the  district,  and  myself  on  Salt  River  circuit. 
His  boarding-place  was  near  the  large  hired  house  we  oc- 
cupied, and  where  for  four  years  Mrs.  Grubbs  conducted  a 
female  school.  It  was  a  year  of  great  excitement  and 
friction,  in  some  respects.  Dr.  N.  L.  Rice  and  the  Cath- 
olics were  at  war.  J.  N.  Maffitt  held  a  meeting  of  sev- 
eral weeks'  continuance,  and  the  situation  called  for  just 
such  qualities,  prudential  and  social,  as  the  pastor  of  our 
society  possessed.  My  circuit  had  eighteen  appointments, 
and  swept  through  portions  of  four  counties.  It  had  been 
one  of  the  early  charges  of  the  bishop,  and  he  was  always 
ready  to  help  in  our  work.  Among  the  best  camp-meet- 
ings ever  held  at  the  old  historic  Beech  Fork  Camp-ground 
was  that  of  August,  1838.  For  a  week  the  presiding 
elder  and  the  Bardstown  pastor  alternated  in  preaching  to 


534  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

the  crowds  that  always  gathered  there.  It  was  pleasing  to 
hear  the  old  Methodists  of  that  county  discussing,  in  the 
quiet  of  their  homes,  for  months  afterwards,  the  relative 
merits  of  these  favorite  camp-meeting  preachers,  and  it  re- 
mained with  them  an  open  question  which  of  the  two  was 
the  greater,  and  which  they  loved  the  best. 

"Though  in  1845-46  you  and  I  were  close  neighbors, 
it  was  my  lot  to  undergo  the  greater  trouble.  During  the 
time  the  Maysville  church  suit,  that  settled  the  property 
question,  was  hanging  fire,  we  were  knocked  about  from 
pillar  to  post.  During  this  Winter  brother  Kavauaugh, 
with  brother  W.  H.  Anderson,  came  from  Lexington,  and 
they  preached  alternately  during  the  week  we  had  the 
church.  While  his  position  was  well  understood,  that 
visit  as  their  old  pastor  had  a  mollifying  effect  upon  a  so- 
ciety so  equally  divided  that  it  took  ten  days  of  legal 
overhauling  to  fix  the  question  of  majority.  Even  when 
settled  in  our  favor,  an  old  Kentucky  statute  so  befogged 
old  Judge  Reed  that  he  divided  the  time  equally. 

"My  next  and  longest  association  with  our  deceased 
friend  was  during  the  four  years,  from  1848  to  1852,  when 
I  filled  the  Covington  District,  and  he  served  full  terms  at 
Soule  Chapel,  Cincinnati,  and  Scott  Street,  Covington. 
The  district  stretched  from  the  Ohio  border  to  Paris,  with 
not  a  mile  of  railroad  and  but  few  turnpikes.  I  will  not 
attempt  a  list  of  the  effective  men  who  passed  in  and  out 
of  the  district  during  these  four  years.  They  ranged  from 
Kavanaugh,  Bruce,  Linn,  Merritt,  the  Deering  brothers, 
to  Robert  Hiner  and  Joseph  Rand,  who  were  then  making 
their  first  essays  in  what  has  proved  a  long  and  success- 
ful itinerancy.  We  had  the  largest  list  of  superannuates  of 
any  other  district,  and  I  must  linger  lovingly  over  these 
venerable  men.  There  was  William  Burke,  the  old  war- 
horse  and  block-house  preacher ;  Samuel  A.  Latta,  the 
massive,  and  George  W.  Maley,  the  inimitable,  who  came 
to  us  from  Ohio  with  E.  W.  Sehon,  but,  unlike  him,  they 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH,  535 

were  not  able  for  duty.  There  was  Isaac  Collord,  the  sage, 
who  gave  me  license  to  preach ;  and  John  James,  the  ar- 
dent, who  was  retired  by  mistake,  and  for  whom  I  found 
work.  We  had  Josiah  Whitaker — just  like  himself — with 
old  Buck,  carrying  the  documents  furnishing  material  for 
a  five  hours'  sermon  on  Baptism,  and  for  push  in  any  thing 
he  undertook.  My  recollections  of  this  unique  man  are 
very  tender.  I  visited  him  on  his  dying-bed  in  the  Spring 
of  1850.  His  last  words  to  me  were:  '  Billy,  tell  the  breth- 
ren at  conference  it  is  all  right  with  their  old  servant;  my 
way  to  heaven  is  just  as  clear  as  the  road  to  Cynthiana, 
that  I  have  been  traveling  for  fifty  years.' 

"There  was  Samuel  Veach,  feeble  in  body,  but  always 
welcome  to  the  people,  and  noted  for  his  short  and  incisive 
sermons.  Thomas  R.  Malone,  my  class-mate,  was  the 
worst  case  of  chronic  rheumatism,  and  yet  the  most  cheer- 
ful man  in  affliction  I  ever  saw.  The  only  survivor  of  this 
worthy  and  venerable  list  is  that  sturdy  man,  James  C. 
Crow,  ready  for  the  hardest  work,  or  to  abide  with  his  large 
family  as  his  brethren  might  deem  best. 

"  If  I  retained  the  good-will  of  these  men,  so  greatly  the 
junior  of  nearly  all  of  them,  and  \vorked  in  harmony  with 
those  able  for  duty,  it  was  largely  owing  to  the  advice  and 
confidential  relations  that  I  sustained  to  him  who  was  cen- 
tral to  all.  He  never  proffered  advice,  and  yet  always 
stood  ready  to  impart  it,  and  in  no  instance  did  he  mislead. 
The  only  embarrassment  I  felt  in  all  these  years  was  the 
deference  he  paid  to  one  so  much  younger. 

"  Very  truly  yours,  WM.  M.  GRUBBS, 

"South-east  Indiana  Conference." 

Rev.  \V.  H.  Anderson,  D.  D.,  of  the  Kentucky 
Conference,  writes: 

"  DEAR  DOCTOR, — I  have  all  confidence  in  your  ability 
to  present  to  the  Church  and  the  world  a  life-like  picture 
of  our  departed  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  especially  as  the  larger 


536  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

part  of  his  Life  was  prepared  and  approved  by  him  but  a 
short  period  before  his  death.  At  your  request,  I  present 
this  short  sketch,  a  humble  tribute  to  his  purity  of  charac- 
ter and  a  long  life  of  honored  usefulness  in  the  Church 
of  God. 

"It  is  not  the  language  of  eulogy,  but  of  severe  truth, 
to  say  that  H.  H.  Kavanaugh  was  one  of  the  best,  the 
purest  men  that  ever  illustrated  the  saving  power  of  grace 
and  left  their  impress  upon  their  race  and  time.  He  was 
the  first  preacher  I  heard  when  in  boyhood  I  moved  to 
Kentucky ;  he  was  my  parents'  pastor,  and  preached  my 
mother's  funeral  sermon.  I  was  honored  with  being  once 
a  co-pastor  with  him,  and  enjoyed  his  paternal  advice  and 
affection  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

"  His  character  was  marked  with  simplicity,  modesty, 
goodness,  transparency,  but  resting  on  strong  convictions 
and  fixed  principles.  His  intellectual  powers  were  of  the 
highest  order,  developed  in  well-balanced  symmetry  and 
strength,  and  all  elevated  by  piety  and  consecrated  to 
God.  He  had  a  chaste,  active  imagination,  a  wonderful 
variety  of  imagery,  and  wealth  and  adaptation  of  language, 
and  a  superior  ready  memory.  As  a  speaker,  he  very  hap- 
pily combined  fervid,  melting  oratory  with  keenest  logic 
and  masterly  reasoning.  Early  converted  to  God  when  a 
printer's  boy,  he  was  led  by  a  mother's  influence  to  study, 
accept,  and  appreciate  Methodism  in  its  doctrines,  usages, 
and  polity.  His  mind,  in  its  thorough  and  hearty  ac- 
quaintance with  those  giant  thinkers,  Wesley  and  Fletcher, 
Watson  and  Benson,  saw  the  harmony  of  their  teachings 
with  the  Word  of  God,  human  wants,  and  noblest  Christian 
experience.  These  mighty  and  pure  men,  raised  up 'of 
God  for  a  special  period  and  work,  were  the  theological 
teachers,  divinity  doctors,  who  developed  Kavanaugh's 
forming  mind  and  heart,  opened  up  to  him  the  rich  treas- 
ures of  redemption,  and  in  connection  with  his  own  effort 
and  the  grace  of  God,  made  our  departed  bishop  one  of  the 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  537 

prominent  pulpit  kings  of  his  time.  In  reviewing  his  life, 
we  find  that,  like  John  Wesley,  a  mother's  superior  intel- 
lect and  devoted  piety  impressed  themselves  on  the  mind 
and  heart  of  her  noble  son,  and  God  permitted  her  to  live 
long  enough  to  see  the  blessed  ripe  fruits  of  her  early  care 
and  labors  and  prayers.  Bishop  Kavauaugh  was  a  self- 
made  man,  and  by  his  intense  application  made  himself 
master  of  a  large  and  varied  and  extended  amount  of 
knowledge.  He  would  often  astonish  you  with  the  excel- 
lence of  his  attainments  in  natural  science  and  in  the  phi- 
losophy of  mind.  He  was  a  profound  thinker,  a  close 
student  of  nature  and  art,  of  men  and  of  books ;  but  he 
made  every  thing  miuister  to  his  one  great  work  and  joy — 
the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Religion  and  the 
ministry,  the  cause  and  kingdom  of  Christ,  were  the  all- 
controlling  topics  of  thought  and  labor.  Nothing  with  him 
was  valuable,  only  as  he  could  hang  it  on  the  cross  for  the 
glory  of  Him  who  stained  the  tree  with  his  blood. 

"  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  descended  from  the  North 
Irish  Protestants — a  noble  ancestry,  to  whom  he  was 
largely  indebted  for  the  continued  sunshine  in  his  spirit, 
his  genial,  spicy  humor,  his  remarkable  anecdotical  power, 
and  his  ardent,  true  friendship.  It  was  the  Irish  blood, 
made  to  glow  with  the  truth  and  grace  of  God,  that 
caused  his  brain  to  flash  with  genius  and  his  tongue  to 
melt  with  eloquence.  Few  men  seemed  so  completely  un- 
conscious of  their  pulpit  power  and  greatness  when  out  of 
the  sacred  desk.  In  the  social  circle  his  manner  \vas 
genial,  attractive;  his  presence  was  like  a  glad  sunbeam ; 
lie  was  the  light  and  joy  of  the  fireside,  the  home  circle. 
His  Christianity  had  no  asceticism  in  it;  he  was  all  sunshine 
and  love,  humble  and  trustful  as  a  child,  yet  as  fixed  in  his 
convictions  of  truth  and  duty  and  privilege  as  the  everlast- 
ing hills.  The  Christian  gentleman  impressed  all  with 
whom  he  associated.  There  was  never  any  show  of  self- 
importance  or  assumed  dignity.  He  was  the  true  friend, 


538  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

who  seemed  to  lay  aside  all  considerations  of  self  in  his 
efforts  to  aid  others. 

"  The  pulpit  was  his  throne,  redemption  his  tireless 
theme;  Jesus,  the  cross  and  eternal  life,  the  character 
and  government  and  glory  of  God  in.  provisions  for  human 
happiness,  the  inspiring  topics  of  his  natural,  sublime,  over- 
whelming eloquence.  To  preach  like  himself  he  required 
a  grand  theme,  unlimited  liberty  of  range,  indefinite  period, 
and  the  uuction  from  on  high.  And  though  his  failures 
were  stupendous,  incalculable,  yet  for  continued  lofty  flight 
of  grandest  thought  in  most  appropriate  language,  all  fused 
and  overpowering  by  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  at 
times  our  departed  friend  was  the  prince  of  preachers. 
He  would  take  an  old,  trite  theme  from  others'  lips,  and 
dress  it  with  beauty  and  inspire  it  with  music,  and  wreathe 
it  with  poetry,  or  enrich  it  with  masterly  carved  logic,  so 
as  to  attract  and  impress  with  all  the  charm  of  novelty. 
He  never  wandered  outside  of  our  pure  and  consistent  and 
lovely  Wesleyan  theology  to  find  themes.  At  home  in  his 
own  faith,  he  ever  found  something  new,  beautiful,  grand, 
soul-inspiring.  He  had  no  desire  for  a  false  experimental 
philosophy  that  forsakes  the  old,  the  tried,  the  true,  the 
good,  for  the  newly  discovered  theories  in  theology  and  re- 
ligion. His  religious  views  had  on  them  the  stamp  of  the 
strictest  Wesleyan  type.  There  was  a  beauty,  concordance, 
symmetry,  divine  loveliness,  and  an  adaptation  to  man's 
necessities,  that  charmed  his  mind  and  heart,  and  wedded 
him  in  thought,  soul,  and  pulpit  expression.  Our  bishop 
had  thoroughly  digested  and  absorbed  our  grand  Method- 
ism. It  was  no  longer,  after  an  examination  and  experi- 
ence of  more  than  threescore  years  of  ministerial  life,  a 
question  to  be  solved ;  that  was  settled  and  fixed  with  him 
by  Bible  truth  and  Christian  experience  and  largest  obser- 
vation. 

"What  a  friend  he  was!  So  true,  so  dear!  There 
was  not  a  particle  of  deceit  or  concealment  about  him. 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  539 

He  was  as  transparent  as  a  sunbeam,  and  as  bright  and 
cheering  too.  It  was  a  luxury  with  him  to  do  an  act  of 
kindness  for  Christ's  sake. 

"  His  intellect  of  giant  mold  was  usually  concealed  by 
his  gentle,  loving  simplicity  of  manner  and  spirit.  In  the 
family  circle  our  departed  bishop's  religion  shone  out  in 
genial  attractive  loveliness,  such  as  we  may  suppose  the 
Master  exhibited  at  the  marriage  of  Cana  of  Galilee.  In 
his  presence  you  were  attracted  towards  him  by  the  mag- 
netic force  of  unselfish  goodness  that  loved  to  make  others 
happy. 

"  Born  in  Kentucky,  his  grave,  crowned  by  grace,  will 
be  with  Bascom's  in  Kentucky  soil.  Not  only  was  he 
prized,  loved,  and  honored  by  our  own  Southern  Method- 
ism in  Kentucky,  and  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Pacific,  but  by 
Christian  men  of  all  denominations,  and  by  multiplied 
thousands  in  no  Church.  His  personal  purity  of  charac- 
ter; his  simple-hearted,  unselfish,  broad-souled  piety;  his 
cordial,  cheerful,  companionable  spirit,  endeared  him  most 
tenderly  to  all  who  knew  him.  Slander  never  dared  to 
whisper  a  word  or  point  a  sneering  finger  at  his  good  name. 

"  Our  Kavanaugh  was  a  commentary  on  what  true  re- 
ligion is  in  spirit  and  purpose,  effort  and  result.  It  was  in 
the  pulpit  or  on  the  platform  that  the  usually  concealed 
giant  thinker,  the  rapt  natural  poet,  the  apparently  in- 
spired logician,  the  sublime  orator  appeared,  moving  and 
melting  all  hearts  before  him.  There  was  at  times  in  the 
lava-flow  of  thought  a  most  marked  religious  influence  on 
his  hearers,  a  true  specimen  of  '  the  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit,'  a  fulfillment  of  the  promise,  '  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always.'  In  listening  to  his  representations  of  the  glories 
of  redemption,  the  supreme  bliss  of  heaven,  the  completion 
of  human  folly  in  the  fearful  '  damnation  of  hell,'  you  were 
astonished  at  the  variety  of  his  remarkable  figures  and  the 
language  in  which  they  were  dressed,  while  your  whole  be- 
ing was  thrilled  by  the  JMMVIT  of  mighty  creative  genius, 


540  LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF 

sanctified  by  the  truth  and  grace  of  God.  Paine,  and  Kav- 
auaugh,  the  classic  thinker,  the  superior  presiding  officer, 
the  grand  Christian  philosopher,  and  now  the  close  rea- 
souer,  the  mighty  pulpit  orator,  the  devoted  servant  of 
God, — God  spared  these  to  live  more  than  fourscore  years 
to  bless  the  Church  and  the  world.  What  a  blessed  meet- 
ing of  such  minds  in  the  presence  of  Jesus,  angels,  and 
redeemed  ones !  What  a  triumphal  march  of  glorified  in- 
tellect amid  the  truth,  full  orbed,  as  it  is  in  Jesus! 

"As  a  presiding  officer,  any  deficiency  in  parliamentary 
law  or  usage  was  more  than  made  up  in  the  spirit  of  justice 
and  kindness  ever  present.  His  decisions  were  on  the  side 
of  right,  and  love  made  even  their  errors  to  magnify  rever- 
ence for  the  man. 

"  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  our  loved  bishop  did  not  em- 
ploy his  pen  power  more  for  the  edification  of  the  Church, 
and  as  the  source  of  contributions  to  the  future  benefit  and 
history  of  the  Church.  The  itinerancy  is  not  favorable 
in  some  regards  to  practice  and  excellence  in  the  use  of  the 
pen.  Itinerancy  is  full  of  valuable  incident,  instruction, 
philosophy,  pictures  of  human  character,  art  studies  in  hu- 
man nature  and  divine  grace,  which  ought  to  be  placed  on 
record  for  instruction  and  edification,  as  well  as  elements  of 
future  history. 

"  Our  sketch  is  merely  a  sprig  of  evergreen  thrown  on 
his  honored  grave.  God  has  shown  us  not  only  his  excel- 
lent providence,  but  a  marked  peculiarity  of  Methodism  in 
the  history  of  Kavanaugh,  Durbin,  and  Bascom.  Bascom 
was  called  from  the  hard  work  of  farm  life,  splitting  rails 
to  help  support  his  poor  parents ;  Durbin  left  his  tools  in 
the  cabinet-maker's  shop  ;  Kavanaugh  had  the  printer's  ink 
on  his  hands  when  God  called  him  to  the  ministry.  These 
three  self-made  men,  with  many  others  in  the  school  of  the 
itinerancy,  developed  a  noble  manhood,  and  made  themselves 
a  living  name  on  human  record.  Methodism  takes  the 
rude  ashler  from  the  quarry,  and  by  the  aid  of  divine 


BISHOP   KAVANAUGH.  541 

grace,  carves  statues  of  spiritual  beauty  and  grace,  the  ad- 
miration of  the  angels  and  men. 

"  We  give  all  honor  to  every  instrumentality  for  train- 
ing our  ministry ;  but  the  best  theological  diploma  is  direct 
from  Jesus  himself.  The  true  call  to  the  ministry,  the 
regular  development  in  mind  and  heart  in  religious  letters 
and  in  practical,  profitable  theology,  are  best  found  in  the 
genuine  old-time  itinerant  life.  Four  weeks'  circuits,  with 
plenty  of  hard  work  and  abundance  of  common  sense  and 
of  religious  experience,  try  the  genuineness  of  the  call, 
shake  the  self-conceit  out,  and  develop  the  manly  man. 

"  No  death  has  made  a  deeper,  sadder  impression  on 
the  public  mind,  no  name  will  live  in  deeper,  greener, 
holier  memory,  than  that  of  our  Kavanaugh.  May  we 
not,  amid  our  falling  tears,  rejoice  that,  in  giving  back  to 
our  Father  our  own  loved  bishop,  we  have  erected  one  of 
the  grandest  of  centennial  memories  and  monuments? 
This  will  be  the  year  when  our  Kavanaugh  went  up  to 
heaven  to  live  with  God  forever.  We  have  his  grave, 
and  angels  guard  his  sacred  dust — his  soul  is  with  the 
Lord. 

"Our  kind,  true  friend  and  devoted  father  has  gone. 
Amid  our  tears,  falling  on  his  new-made  grave  in  the  State 
where  he  was  born  and  labored  and  was  honored  of  God 
and  man,  we  rejoice  that,  after  so  pure  and  useful  and 
noble  a  life,  God  in  his  love  took  our  bishop  home  before 
his  mind  began  to  show  sympathy  with  decay  of  physical 
powers  under  the  weight  of  years.  No  sadder  sight  than 
that  of  the  giant  whose  intellectual  tread  shook  the  world, 
now  returned  to  childhood  again — sin's  fearful,  temporary 
triumph  over  the  grand  purposes  and  plans  of  heaven. 
Bishop  Kavanaugh  died  ripe  with  years  and  laden  with 
honors  ready  for  his  crown.  He  fell  with  the  harness  on. 
It  seems  like  a  dream  that  never  again  will  we  see  his 
genial  smile  or  loving  tears,  or  hear  his  loving  tones  in  the 
social  circle  or  his  eloquent  voice  in  the  pulpit,  as  he 


LIFE   AND    TIMES  OF 

talked  of  Jesus  and  heaven.  Now  he  lives  with  that  Jesus 
whom  he  loved  and  preached.  Now  he  knows,  as  never 
before,  the  beauty  and  grandeur  and  glory  of  that  heaven, 
whose  hope  stirred  his  own  soul  and  glowed  on  his  lips  and 
kindled  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  He  is  helping  the  angels 
and  the  redeemed  sing  '  the  song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb.' 
May  God  sanctify  our  loss,  and  raise  up  another  Elisha 
worthy  to  catch  and  to  wear  the  mantle  of  our  departed 
Elijah !  W.  H.  ANDERSON,  D.  D." 

LINES  TO  BISHOP  KAVANAUGH. 

injmfteir  to  JHrs.  Jfcabaiiaujjb  ty  f)jr 

REV.  JOSEPEIUS   ANDERSON,   D.  D. 
1. 

BISHOP!  thou  of  eagle  wing, 
In  the  realm  of  preaching,  king! 
Upward,  in  thy  lofty  flights, 
Thou  didst  rise  to  glorious  heights; 
Training  minds  and  hearts  to  soar, 
Grander  fields  of  truth  explore, 
In  the  higher  life  to  grow, 
More  of  heav'n  on  earth  to  know. 
Lo!  thy  laurel'd  head  dost  bow; 
Thy  eagle  wing  is  folded  now; 
From  thy  work,  in  sweet  release, 
Wondrous  preacher,  rest  in  peace! 

2. 

Vet'ran  of  the  sacred  cross, 
Yielding  not  to  gain  or  loss, 
Hero  of  the  dauntless  brow, 
Sixty  years  a  leader,  thou ! 
Pressing  on,  through  lauds  of  snow, 
On,  where  orange  blossoms  blow, 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  543 

On,  to  western  golden  shores, 
On,  where  old  Atlantic  roars. 
Lo!  thy  battles  all  are  o'er; 
Thou  hast  vanquished  thy  last  foe! 
Now,  from  war's  dread  conflicts  cease, 
Vet'ran  leader,  rest  in  peace! 

3. 

Brother !  thou  of  tender  heart ! 
Ever  true  to  friendship's  part; 
Great  in  goodness,  tow'ring  high 
Into  pure  love's  sunny  sky; 
Full  of  wit  in  sparkling  flow, 
Charming  in  its  stingless  blow; 
Old  in  years,  but  young  in  soul, 
Fresh  and  bright  as  burnished  gold: 
Lo !  we  give  thee  up  in  tears 
To  the  friends  of  other  years, 
And  in  this,  thy  soul's  release, 
Sadly  whisper,  Rest  in  peace! 

4. 

Rest  in  peace  with  God  above, 
Blest  with  his  eternal  love! 
In  exchange  for  sword  and  shield, 
Thou  a  harp  and  palm  shalt  wield ! 
For  thy  heavy  armor  here, 
Robed  in  white  shalt  thou  appear! 
For  thy  helmet,  now  cast  down, 
Thou  shalt  wear  the  victor's  crown! 
For  thy  life  of  faith  below, 
Thou  the  life  of  hcav'n  shalt  know! 
Lo!  we  wait  the  time  to  come, 
When  we'll  meet  in  that  blest  home! 


544  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

It  will  always  be  a  source  of  pleasure  to  the 
Church  that,  notwithstanding  the  great  age  to  which 
Bishop  Kavanaugh  attained,  yet  his  intellect  was  not 
impaired,  and  that  to  the  last  he  preached  and  wrote 
with  all  the  vigor  of  his  early  manhood. 

He  died  in  the  centennial  year  of  the  Church  he 
loved  so  well,  having  lived  to  witness  its  grand 
achievements  and  its  glorious  triumphs. 

Among  the  last  traces  of  his  pen  are  the  follow- 
ing stirring  words : 

"  The  glorious  march  of  Methodism,  through  the 
past  century  of  her  organic  existence  in  America,  is, 
a  theme  that  inspires  my  soul.  I  congratulate  my- 
self that  I  have  been  permitted  for  more  than  four- 
fifths  of  this  glorious  period  to  witness  the  great 
triumphs  of  the  Church,  through  the  direction  of 
God's  Spirit.  I  bear  joyful  testimony  to  the  fact 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  wonderful  work  wrought, 
and  of  the  mighty  results  accomplished.  The  track 
of  this  century  is  emblazoned  with  the  shining  marks 
of  God's  outpouring  Spirit.  There  are  towering  mon- 
uments of  his  love  and  care  all  along  its  backward 
track.  What  an  inspiration  they  should  be  to  us 
to-day!  Brethren,  how  they  encourage  us  to  press 
forward  to  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  our  high  calling 
as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus \  What  a  grand  theme  to  dwell 
upon!  This  centenary  year  we  should,  as  a  Church, 
not  prove  recreant  to  the  noble  history  our  fathers 
have  made,  but  should  add  to  it  pages  of  heroism  and 
devotion  worthy  a  place  in  the  records  of  American 
Methodism.  O  for  a  revival  of  the  old  days  of  Gospel 
power  and  triumph !  What  glorious  opportunities  are 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  545 

offered  us  to  make  this  year  memorable !  Let  us  meas- 
ure up  to  our  responsibilities  and  privileges.  We  can 
make  this  year  a  monumental  one.  The  great  objects, 
Missions,  Church  Extension,  and  Education,  appeal  to 
our  liberality,  and  should  not  appeal  in  vain.  We  can 
discharge  every  obligation  we,  as  a  Church,  owe  to 
these  worthy  aids  in  our  grand  work  "of  evangelizing 
the  world,  and  not  be  weakened  by  the  outlay. 
Brethren,  let  us  go  forward,  and  fail  not." 

We  approach  the  close  of  this  volume  with  the  fol- 
lowing letter  from  the  bereaved  wife  of  our  glorified 
bishop: 

"OUR  LAST  TRIP. 

"LOUISVILLE,  KY.,  April  5,  1884. 

"  As  the  gloom  and  sadness  of  a  deserted  hearth  comes 
up  before  me,  I  naturally  revert  to  a  few  past  weeks  in 
my  checkered  life ;  but  it  is  not  only  to  indulge  in  retro- 
spection in  speaking  of  myself  that  I  take  up  my  pen,  but 
the  thought  wells  up  from  the  perusal  of  so  many  kind 
letters  of  condolence  and  sympathy,  coming  from  anxious, 
inquiring  friends,  that  it  will  be  a  mournful  pleasure  to 
them  to  read  of  the  last  trip  taken  by  one  so  dear  to  their 
hearts,  and  associated  with  many  scenes  and  occasions-  in 
the  past. 

"  When  our  dear  bishop  (for  that  is  his  familiar  appel- 
lation), accompanied  by  myself,  left  our  home  on  the 
Kavanaugh  Camp-ground,  the  last  day  of  October,  for  an 
extended  tour  through  Virginia,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  and 
Louisiana,  how  far  from  our  thoughts  was  the  idea  that  it 
was  our  last  trip! 

"  We  journeyed  from  Kentucky  first  to  Lynchburp:, 
Va. ,  where  we  passed  a  pleasant  few  days  in  the  home  of 
one  of  the  representative  ministers  of  that  <-<>nfrmirr  and 
his  interesting  family,  mingling  with  others  in  social  inter- 

46 


546  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

coiyse  in  their  pleasant,  hospitable  homes.  From  thence 
•we  went  by  invitation  to  Petersburg,  where  we  made  the 
acquaintance  for  the  first  time  with  intelligence  and  refine- 
ment of  high  order  in  the  homes  of  the  best  of  our  Church. 
Then  we  proceeded  to  Richmond,  where  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
had  been  appointed  to  hold  the  Virginia  Conference.  We 
never  enjoyed  a  conference  more.  The  kind  family  who 
had  entertained  us  on  a  former  occasion  received  us  now, 
and,  if  possible,  redoubled  their  efforts  to  give  us  a  wel- 
come reception.  The  same  genial,  pleasant  faces,  not 
looking  one  bit  older  than  seven  years  back,  the  same 
sunny,  bright  room  for  our  resting-place,  welcomed  us 
again,  with  the  invitation,  and  then  the  bright  hope,  that 
we  would  meet  there  at  the  next  General  Conference. 

"  Leaving  there,  we  were  invited  to  Danville,  and  there 
were  received  most  cordially  into  the  family  of  one  of  the 
prominent  ministers  of  the  Virginia  Conference.  The  en- 
tire family,  consisting  of  wife,  the  aged  and  venerable 
mother,  with  sons  and  daughters  in  the  Church,  all  ex- 
tended their  cordial,  graceful  attentions  to  their  bishop 
and  his  wife.  Never  did  we  enjoy  a  more  pleasant  few 
days  in  minister's  family.  We  were  forcibly  reminded 
that  these  were  the  pleasant  spots  in  the  journey  of  life. 

"Leaving  Danville,  we  went  to  Augusta,  Ga.,  and, 
though  much  fatigued  with  that  long  trip,  we  were  glad 
that  we  had  gone ;  for  we  met  many,  though  for  the  first 
time,  very  agreeable  people,  and  seeing  Augusta,  though 
in  the  sere  and 'yellow  leaf,  we  felt  impelled  to  say  it  was 
a  beautiful  spot.  My  reflections  here  induce  me  to  say 
that  it  has  been  the  crowning  pleasure  of  my  life  to  have 
been  permitted  to  take  these  trips  with  my  honored  husband. 
To  be  Avelcomed  by  genial  faces,  Avith  almost  outstretched 
arms,  into  the  comfortable  homes  of  our  ministers  and 
members,  was  a  joy  far  outweighing  any  fatigue  or  little 
inconvenience  of  our  trips. 

"From  Augusta  we  proceeded  to  Jackson,  Miss.,  on 


BISHOP  KA  VAN  A  UGH.  547 

invitation  from  our  much-prized  editor  of  the  Neiv  Orleans 
Christian  Advocate.  Here,  too,  we  were  met  aud  taken  to 
the  hospitable  homes  of  some  of  our  choicest  Christian 
people. 

"From  Jackson  we  went  direct  to  Natchez,  the  seat 
of  the  Mississippi  Conference.  To  me  this  was  a  visit  of 
great  interest ;  for  it  was  my  first  return  to  a  city  I  had 
passed  through  in  the  year  1827,  on  my  way  to  Washing- 
ton, six  miles  from  Natchez,  where  I  spent  some  years  at 
school  whilst  Brother  B.  M.  Drake  was  president  of  that 
academy.  At  this  conference  I  was  permitted  to  meet  the 
venerable  wife  of  that  sainted  man  to  whom  I  am  indebted 
for  most  of  the  Christian  character  that  has  been  my  safe- 
guard through  life.  I  love  his  memory,  and  I  prize  most 
highly  the  long,  fervent  letter  of  Christian  sympathy  and 
condolence  coming  so  recently  from  dear  Sister  Drake.  Our 
dear  bishop  presided  'over  this  conference  with  great  ease 
and  satisfaction  to  himself,  and,  I  believe,  made  but  few 
mistakes  in  his  appointments. 

"From  Natchez  we  proceeded  to  Vicksburg,  Miss., 
spending  several  very  pleasant  days  with  the  kind  families 
of  that  choice  circle  of  friends,  mingling  alike  with  Pres- 
byterians and  Methodists,  the  bishop  preaching  in  the  pul- 
pits of  each. 

"From  Vicksburg  we  proceeded  to  Monroe,  La.,  the 
residence  of  my  only  surviving  brother,  Judge  R.  W. 
Richardson.  We  passed  about  ten  days  in  the  bosom  of 
my  dear  brother's  interesting  family,  the  bishop  preaching  in 
Monroe  twice  at  night,  and  devoting  the  only  Sabbath  at 
his  command  in  going  to  the  country,  fifteen  miles  distant, 
to  dedicate  a  church. 

"Leaving  Monroe  on  the  morning  of  the  6th,  we  took 
passage  on  the  steamboat  for  New  Orleans,  as  the  seat  of 
the  conference  had  been  clmnjrcd  from  Mindi-n  t<>  NV\v 
Orleans.  We  met  quite  a  number  of  preachers  on  their 
way  to  the  conference,  and,  as  was  always  the  case,  the 


548  LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF 

bishop  enjoyed  the  companionship  of  the  preachers  in  a 
high  degree.  He  seemed  to  be  perfectly  happy  in  their 
presence,  conversing  with  them  on  different  poiuts  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  in  communion  with  them  generally.  On  this 
trip  he  preached  a  soul-stirring  sermon  on  the  Sabbath. 

"We  reached  New  Orleans  on  the  8th  of  January, 
conference  convening  on  the  9th.  We  were  kindly  cared 
for  by  the  preachers  in  charge  of  the  city  churches  by 
placing  us  with  Mrs.  Moss,  whose  comfortable  home  was 
immediately  opposite  the  Carondelet  Street  Church.  We 
had  every  comfort  and  kindness  which  could  contribute  to 
our  well-being,  the  presiding  elder  of  the  New  Orleans 
District,  Brother  Walker,  attending  the  bishop  both  to  and 
from  the  church  during  the  entire  session. 

"  He  was  assisted  in  his  conference  session  by  the  regu- 
lar attendance  of  our  esteemed  friend,  Bishop  Parker,  who 
relieved  him  of  all  possible  duty;  and  though  my  own 
health  at  that  time  prevented  my  being  present  but  a  few 
days,  yet  I  saw  that  our  dear  bishop  was  not  only  enduring 
but  enjoying  the  week's  labors  well,  so  that  the  entire  con- 
ference week  passed  off  most  harmoniously.  And  I  say  it  in 
gratitude  to  my  heavenly  Father,  that  if  it  was  his  will  that 
our  dear  bishop  should  die  away  from  his  own  home,  the 
State  of  Louisiana,  the  home  of  my  childhood,  the  scene 
of  my  early  school-days,  would  have  been  my  choice. 
And  this  conference  most  beautifully  commemorated  his 
closing  labors  by  a  touching  tribute  on  his  eighty-second 
anniversary. 

"  We  left  New  Orleans  for  Ocean  Springs  on  the  12th 
of  February.  From  invitation  from  Colonel  R.  W.  Stuart, 
we  had  promised  a  visit  to  that  most  interesting  couple, 
Colonel  Stuart  and  his  precious  wife.  We  were  welcomed 
as  in  the  bosom  of  near  and  dear  relations ;  a  reserved  room 
given  us,  with  every  comfort  we  could  ask.  And  coming 
from  the  busy  throng  of  a  New  Orleans  visit,  we  felt  our- 
selves to  be  exceedingly  fortunate  hi  coming  into  such  a 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  549 

home.  We  passed  the  first  four  days  delightfully  ;  but  un- 
fortunately our  bishop  was  unmindful  of  a  cold,  drizzling, 
damp  Saturday,  and  exposed  himself  as  he  had  no  need 
to  do.  Upon  my  remonstrance,  he  promised  to  be  more 
careful ;  but  that  night,  Saturday,  February  16th,  he  suf- 
fered intensely  all  night  with  pains  in  his  back  and  limbs, 
and  passed  a  most  restless  night  of  suffering.  He  fell 
asleep  about  daylight,  aud,  as  was  my  habit  when  he  had 
been  disturbed  the  night  before,  I  usually  let  him  sleep  in 
the  moruing  until  he  was  fully  rested.  He  had  often  told 
me  that  this  thoughtful  indulgence,  which  he  would  not 
allow  himself,  had  done  a  great  deal  toward  preserving  his 
services  to  the  Church. 

' '  I  was  making  my  toilet  as  quietly  as  possible,  to  get 
out  to  breakfast  without  rousing  him,  when  he  unexpectedly 
asked  me  what  was  the  hour.  Telling  him  it  was  breakfast 
time,  I  immediately  urged  him  not  to  attempt  to  rise,  but 
full  asleep  if  he  could,  and  I  would  go  and  report  his  un- 
comfortable night,  and  advise  with  the  family  that  it  would 
be  better  for  the  bishop  not  to  keep  his  appointment  to  preach 
that  day  at  11  o'clock.  But  no;  he  would  not  listen  to 
my  advice,  and  immediately  rose  and  said  he  felt  refreshed 
from  his  morning  sleep,  and  thought  he  could  keep  his  en- 
gagement. We  went  to  the  little  church  in  Ocean  Springs, 
and  he  took  for  his  text,  '  For  this  light  affliction,  which 
is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more  ex- 
ceeding and  eternal  weight  of  glory.'  I  knew  that  was 
his  selected  text;  for,  as  was  my  frequent  habit,  I  had 
asked  him  what  subject  he  intended  to  preach  from,  know- 
ing that  in  all  probability  he  would  preach  but  once  in 
that  place.  I  made  an  objection  to  his  selection,  simply 
upon  the  ground  that,  as  he  would  preach  there  but  once, 
I  thought  he  had  subjects  or  texts  that  would  be  more  in- 
spiring to  the  people,  and  might  be  more  interesting.  He 
replied  that  he  had  selected  that  text  for  a  pnrlicular  ob- 
ject, or,  in  other  words,  he  had  a  particular  olijci-t  in  view 


550  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

in  selecting  that  text.     He  made  no  further  remark,  and 
we  dropped  the  subject. 

"Arriving  at  the  church,  he  rested  a  few  moments  in 
the  pulpit,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  carriage  which  had 
returned  to  bring  Sister  Stuart  a  distance  of  about  a  mile. 
He  arose  and  read  his  text,  paused,  as  was  his  habit,  and 
read  it  a  second  time.  Then  looking  around  over  the  congre- 
gation, he  asked  if  any  one  present  would  bring  him  a  glass 
of  water,  saying,  whilst  waiting,  that  he  had  passed  a  rest- 
less night,  and  felt  much  more  exhausted  than  he  thought 
he  was.  The  water  being  brought  him,  he  partook  of  it 
quite  heartily,  and  read  his  text  a  third  time.  This  at- 
tracted my  particular  attention,  as  I  had  never  known  him 
to  read  his  text  a  third  time.  At  this  moment  a  lady,  sit- 
ting in  front  of  me,  turned  and  said  to  me,  '  Sister  Kav- 
anaugh,  do  n't  let  the  bishop  preach ;  he  is  not  able.'  I 
replied  to  her  that  he  knew  his  own  strength,  and  if  he 
felt  unable  he  would  sit  down,  which  he  did,  requesting 
Brother  Nicholson  to  close  the  services  in  any  way  he 
thought  best,  remarking,  as  he  took  his  seat,  it  was  the 
third  time  in  his  life  he  had  been  forced  to  stop  from 
preaching  from  inability.  After  a  short  service,  we  re- 
turned to  our  home,  a  physician  kindly  offering  to  accom- 
pany the  bishop  to  Colonel  Stuart's.  He  immediately  pre- 
scribed for  him,  and  attended  him  faithfully  for  ten  days, 
after  which  time  we  left  for  Columbus,  Mississippi.  We 
hesitated  before  leaving  for  Columbus  whether  we  had  not 
better  return  to  Kentucky ;  but  after  consulting  the  phy- 
sician, he  advised  us  to  continue  our  stay  in  Mississippi  un- 
til the  season  was  farther  advanced.  Hence  we  accepted 
the  invitation,  having  been  given  in  January,  to  spend  a 
few  weeks  in  Columbus.  Our  bishop  stood  the  trip  very 
well,  and  we  were  most  kindly  received  and  made  very 
comfortable ;  but,  alas !  "in  a  few  days  his  disease  attacked 
him  again,  and  for  two  weeks  it  was  alternately  excruciat- 
ing pain,  and  then  relapse  into  heavy  sleep.  But  I  must 


BISHOP  KAVANAUGH.  551 

draw  a  veil  over  the  closing  hours  of  his  life.  It  was  so 
unlike  our  dear,  patieut  bishop,  naturally  so  genial,  so 
kindly,  so  interesting  in  his  character,  that  we  so  longed 
to  have  a  word,  or  even  a  look  of  recognition ;  but  it  was 
not  permitted  that  we  should  be  so  gratified.  There  were 
moments  when  I  could  have  him  talk  to  me ;  but  he 
seemed  so  inclined  to  sleep  when  not  suffering  that  my 
ruling  impulse  was  to  let  him  rest.  For  many  days  before 
he  breathed  his  last  he  did  not  recognize  any  of  the  kind 
friends  who  stood  around  his  bedside  or  waited  in  the  house 
ready  to  be  called  on  for  any  purpose. 

"  O,  I  can  never  cease  to  remember  the  kindness  of  the 
good  people  of  Columbus!  Every  thing  which  could  be 
thought  of  to  administer  to  his  recovery  or  comfort  was 
offered.  But  it  could  not  keep  him  with  us.  He  breathed 
his  last  at  the  parsonage,  where  he  was  so  kindly  cared  for 
by  Brother  and  Sister  Scruggs  and  others,  at  3  A.  M.,  on 
the  19th  of  March.  We  left  Columbus  on  the  morning  of 
the  20th,  and  brought  his  precious  remains  to  his  dear 
State,  his  chosen  city  of  residence,  and  placed  them  in  a 
beautiful  lot  in  Cave  Hill  Cemetery.  His  body  rests  there, 
but  his  glorified  spirit  is  free  and  at  large  in  those  realms 
above,  the  anticipation  of  which  formed  so  grand  and  ex- 
alted a  theme  in  his  ministry  on  earth." 

When  he  left  Kentucky,  on  the  last  day  of  October, 
we  little  thought  that  we  should  see  his  face  no  more 
in  the  flesh.  Although  his  gait  \vas  less  steady,  we 
hoped  he  would  return  in  improved  health  and  strength  ; 
but  God  ordained  otherwise.  He  laid  him  down  to 
rest  in  the  beautiful  city  of  Columbus,  far  away  from 
home,  yet  among  those  who  ministered  t<?  his  wants, 
:;n<l  as  far  as  possible  alleviated  his  Bufferings. 

The  last  letter  we  received  from  him  was  written 
from  New  Orleans,  and  dated  January  the  25th,  in 


552  BISHOP  KAVANAUGH. 

which  he  furnished  us  with  a  list  of  names  that  he 
desired  should  be  associated  with  his  in  the  labor  of 
love  he  had  committed  to  our  hands. 

For  more  than  forty  years  between  him  and  the 
author  the  warmest  friendship  existed,  and  but  few 
persons  felt  the  bereavement  more  than  we. 

With  sword  never  dishonored,  a  Christian  hero 
has  fallen  in  the  midst  of  the  battle  with  his  armor 
on,  after  witnessing  the  work  of  an  ^hundred  years 
crowned  with  victory. 

In  his  centennial  address,  delivered  before  the 
Bowling  Green  District  Conference,  June  7th,  Rev. 
Dr.  Messick  said :  "  We  look  back  through  an  hun- 
dred years  over  the  valley  of  death,  covered  with 
Methodist  graves — preachers  and  laymen.  At  the 
head  of  the  valley  a  memorial  stone  rises,  inscribed, 

FRANCIS    ASBURY,    1784. 

At  the  foot  of  the  valley  a  memorial  stone  rises,  in- 
scribed, 

HUBBARD    HINDE    KAVANAUGH,    1884. 

Brutus  said  of  Cassius,  on  the  fatal  field  of  Philippi, 
when  Cassius  fell,  '  The  last  of  the  Romans;'  and  may 
not  Kentucky  preachers  say  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh, 
'  The  last  of  the  Romans,'  AND  '  THE  NOBLEST  ROMAN 

OF  THEM  ALL  ! '  " 


THE  END. 


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